Abstract: AIM:To ascertain the species status of the Anopheles dirus from Hainan
Province,Chi- na.METHODS:The nucleotide sequence of the second internal transcribed spacer(ITS2
) of PCR- amplified r DNA was determined for the An.diruss pecimens which included 2 individu-
als of the species A colony (AFRIMS) from Thailand and 5 individuals from Hainan Province.RESUL
TS:A841 bp fragment was amplified from single mosquito.The fragment included the ITS2 and small
portions of flanking 5.8S (96bp) and 28S (29bp) genes. The ITS2 was 716 bp in length, the
sequence was identical for all 7 individuals from both Hainan Province and Thailand. No evidence
of intraspecies or intrapopulation variation was detected in the ITS2 and flanking regions.
CONCLUSION: The result suggests the existence of An. dirus A in Hainan Province, which was in
agreement with previous studies from cytogenetic analysis and egg characteristics determned by
scanning electron microscopy.

Key words: Anopheles dirus, ribosomal DNA, second internal transcribed spacer