INHERITANCE OF DARK HEAD AND SIPHON IN THE LARVAE OF CULEXQUINQEFASCIATUS SAY

Abstract

A new spontaneous mutation (dh) is described for Culex quinquefasciatus Say. This
phenotype was observed in the second generation to cause complete coloration of the head
capsule and the siphon of the larvae. This character is mainly detectable in the larval stage
and slightly in the adult stage.
The reciprocal mass matting between mutants from F2 generation and normal wild type
sibs, revealed that the mode of inheritance can be controlled by an autosomal recessive
gene(s). This happened for both sexes with slightly variability in their expression. No
significant larval mortalities were found in all crosses.