Biogeographic area relationships in Venezuela: A parsimony analysis of Culicidae - Phytotelmata distribution in National Parks

This study represents the first attempt to understand the current distribution and evolutionary history of Culicidae in Venezuela and adjacent areas using cladistic methods. We studied the association between immature mosquitoes and their aquatic habitats in plants (phytotelmata) in 16 protected natural areas of Venezuela. A total of 68 mosquito species was collected from 47 host-plant species. Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity using localities and mosquito species was used to find the most parsimonious cladograms depicting the biogeographic relationships. Varying degrees of mosquito-plant associations were observed, with the greatest specificity existing at the genus and subgenus levels. Implicit enumeration algorithms obtained one parsimonious tree (L=101 steps) with four well-supported groups named "Amazonas" (southern Venezuela), "Bolivar" (southeastern Venezuela), "Los Andes Cordillera" and "Coastal Cordillera" (northern Caribbean mountain range). These results support the hypothesis that the Guayana Shield was an ancestral center of speciation, followed by the Andean Region, whereas the mosquito fauna from the Central Cordillera was derived from the latter.