Based on the results of comparative analyses of 1,039 specimens of several progenies of
Anopheles nuneztovari
from three localities in Colombia, eight costal wing spot patterns were observed. Patterns I and III were the most frequent: 77.96% and 11.36%, respectively. Using the diagnostic characters ratio of the length of the basal dark area of hind tarsomere II/length of hind tarsomere II, ratio of the length of the humeral pale spot/length of the pre-humeral dark spot, and the ratio of the length of the subcostal pale spot/length of the distal sector dark spot (DS-III
2/Ta-III
2, HP/PHD, SCP/DSD) approximately 5% of the adult females were misidentified as a species of
Nyssorhynchus
, different from
An. nuneztovari. Approximately 5% of the specimens showed DS-III
2/Ta-III
2 ratio less than 0.25 (range 0.21 - 0.24), and among them 3.34% shared a HP/PHD ratio less than 1.50. Consequently, 1.52% of
An. nuneztovari individuals can be misidentified as
Anopheles oswaldoi
. In those specimens with the DS-III
2/Ta-III
2 ratios higher than 0.25, 34.45% displayed SCP/DSD values greater than 0.50 and of these, 3.65% displayed HP/PHD values greater than 1.8. This combination of characters could lead one to misidentify samples of
An. nuneztovari as
Anopheles rangeli
. Similarly, 2.43% of the females could be identified erroneously as either
Anopheles aquasalis
or
Anopheles benarrochi
. Individuals with a HP/PHD ratio greater than 2.0, could be misidentified as
Anopheles trinkae
,
Anopheles strodei
or
Anopheles evansae
. A distinct combination of diagnostic characters for
An. nuneztovari from Colombia is proposed.
