Experimental hybridization between members of the Simulium damnosum complex

Abstract. Males of the Beffa form of Simulium soubrense Vajime and Dunbar were successfully crossed with female S.squamosum V. & D. and S.sanctipauli V. & D. Fertile eggs from both crosses were reared to larvae and, in the case of the BeifaXsquamosum cross, to adults.
Larval chromosomes from the Beffa x sanctipauli cross had normally paired homologues but those of the Beffa xsquamosum cross showed extensive asynapsis and large heterozygous loops. The morphology of the larval and adult hybrids from the BeftaXsquamosum cross were more characteristic of squamosum , but the adult males had scutal patterns typical of the Beffa form and retained this form's laboratory-mating propensity.