Genetic diversity and phylogeny of and , vectors of malaria in the department of Córdoba, Colombia.

In the department of Córdoba, 21 widely distributed species have been described, of which , , , and are the most abundant species, and the last three play a vectorial role in Malaria transmission in Colombia. A correct taxonomic identification of malaria insect vectors is of vital importance for the development of effective vector control strategies. However, the identification of individuals from the genus presents difficulties due to the loss of relevant morphological characters during the transport and preservation of the collected specimens. In addition to the interspecific variations, and the intraspecific similarities of the species belonging to the subgenus since itpresents species complexes and cryptic species that difficults identification based only in morphological characteristics. The objective of this study was to characterize the barcode fragment of the COI gene and its genetic diversity for the identification of . and . in areas of high malaria transmission from the department of Córdoba. 67 individuals belonging to the species cytotype and 22 were identified, and additionally, 9 haplotypes were obtained for and 14 for distributed in the study areas. The values obtained in the and estimators indicate a low or null genetic differentiation and a high gene flow between most of the studied populations because they share the most frequent haplotypes of these two species. The maximum likelihood trees for these species showed that the specimens from Córdoba belong to the same mitochondrial lineage as those previously reported from Antioquia, Choco, and Norte de Santander.