Evidence of Elevational Speciation in Kerteszia cruzii (Diptera: Culicidae) in the Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, Brazil

Kerteszia cruzii [former Anopheles ( ) ] is a bromeliad mosquito widespread in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. In South-eastern Brazil, it plays an important role malaria transmission because was infected with at least four Plasmodium species. There robust evidence that Ke. species complex. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from nextRAD sequence (nextera-tagmented, reductively amplified DNA) to investigate genetic structure of Ribeira Valley, Brazil. Furthermore, we verified whether associated forest cover, elevation, slope, and vegetation physiognomy. Our results showed two distinct lineages studied region elevation isolation by distance. The first lineage included samples coastal localities second comprised specimens inland or mountain sites. At one sampling locality (Esteiro do Morro Cananéia municipality), both are sympatric. These accordance previously published data elevated stratification . However, Fst values did not indicate existence cryptic sister this region, concluded elevational speciation probably occurs, hypothesized differences population found might be distribution