WEBINAR: Test your skills for a second time in the identification of Mosquito Species, this time, in the Sahel Region

The European project MediLabSecure offers you the opportunity to evaluate your competence in the identification of mosquito species in the Sahelian Africa (from Capo Verde to Chad).

In practice, this evaluation is to be done in 3 steps:

1) Download high resolution photo plates of 40 adult females and 10 four-instar larvae at this address.This download (470 Mo) is available now until 10 May 2022. For your information, (1) all the plates were made by Nil Rahola/IRD from mosquitoes kept in the ARIM (ARthropodes of Medical Interest) collection in Montpellier, France; and (2) there are illustrated dichotomous keys (PDF version of 181 pages, in French only) among the downloaded files, it can be used for female mosquitoes and 4th instars at in the Sahel area. 

2) Proceed in your own way (dichotomous key, books...) to identify each species, either alone or with several colleagues. You have the possibility to zoom in very strongly to observe details on the areas of interest (setae, scales, teeth...). The photo of the leg shows a left hind leg. This identification being strictly morphological, the species of the same complex cannot of course be distinguished from one another, except in certain favourable cases by taking into account the origin of the photographed specimen. 

3) Indicate the results of your identifications on the Word file that is pre-filled. This file is joined with the plates; it indicates the origin of the photographed specimen and gives some morphological info that may be useful for identification, especially for larvae. This completed file (at least for the names of genera and species) must be returned as an attached file to this adress by Tuesday 10 May 2022 at the latest. This is the deadline for submitting your results in order to receive your final evaluation confidentially within 10 days (i.e. before 20 May).

Your result will be considered as a confidential document and its eventual further use will be exclusively statistical, and not nominative (see for example Jourdain et al, Parasites & Vectors, 2018, 11: 553. doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-3127-7).  No prior registration is required. Participation is entirely free of charge and does not commit you to anything.