RELIABILITY OF USING HEAD CAPSULE WIDTH AND BODY LENGTH TO IDENTIFY LARVAL INSTARS OF AEDES VIGILAX (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE)

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Abstract
BDiscriminant function analyses on head capsule width and body length of 940 larvae of the saltmarsh mosquito Aedes vigilax (Skuse) were used to determine their reliability in distinguishing between different instars. Of larvae reared under different temperature/salinity regimes, 99.4% were correctly graded on the basis of head capsule width whereas only 88.0% of determinations were correct when body length was used. Thus head capsule width was found to be a reliable character to grade instars regardless of rearing conditions.