This is an up-to-date, comprehensive glossary of anatomical and morphometric terms applied to the sclerotised structures of mosquitoes. It represents an extensively revised and updated amalgam of the Taxonomists’ Glossary of Mosquito Anatomy (Harbach & Knight, 1980) and its supplement of corrections and additions (Harbach & Knight, 1982).
The glossary is divided into nine sections: General, Adults, Eggs, Larvae, Larval chaetotaxy, Pupae, Pupal chaetotaxy, Vestiture and Morphometry. The General section includes anatomical terms for structures that are common to adults, larvae and/or pupae, and the Morphometric section iincludes terms for morphological measurements and ratios used in the descriptive taxonomy of adults, eggs, larvae and pupae. Each of the other sections includes terms that are specific to the title of the section.
Anatomical terms are arranged alphabetically
and defined on separate pages within each section. Each page has as a basic
pattern of five headings - Abbreviation, Variants, Definition, Synonyms and
Explanation - and one or more images that illustrate the defined structure
(morphometrics are not illustrated). All terms have a definition, nearly all
have an abbreviation, most have variant spellings and synonyms, and relatively
few are provided with additional information under the heading Explanation. In
cases where information is not available for one or more of the headings, those
headings are not displayed on a page.
Abbreviations consist of capital letters or a
combination of upper and lower case letters. Abbreviations are not duplicated
within a given section but in a few cases they are duplicated between sections.
Individual elements of the larval and pupal chaetotaxy are denoted by a number
and a hyphenated capital letter (except cephalothorax = CT; paddle = Pa) on
pages, but are identified on illustrations with only the number. The
small symbols inserted between the word seta
and the setal number should be ignored. They function to enable appropriate
links to the larval and pupal setae that are denoted by the same number-letter
combinations. The abbreviations of the
defined structures are circled in red on the illustrations, and the serial
homologues of defined larval and pupal setae are encircled by turquoise rings.
The glossary sections can be accessed by
clicking on the name of a section below or by returning to the side bar and
clicking on the + that precedes the name of a section. Clicking on the name of
a section in the side panel leads to an introduction to that section.
It is not currently possible
to determine to which defined term a particular synonymic term applies. The
glossary will eventually include an index of synonymic terms with links to the
conventional terminology.
General
Description about general glossary
Adults
Description about adults glossary
Eggs
Description about eggs glossary.
Larvae
Description about larvae glossary
Larval chaetotaxy
Description about larval chaetotaxy glossary
Pupae
Description about pupae glossary
Pupal chaetotaxy
Description about pupal chaetotaxy glossary
Vestiture
Description about vestiture glossary
Morphometry
Description about morphometry glossary