Taxonomic identification

Egg. The whole egg measured 558,70 μm length. It had a banana-shaped form and a dark coloration pattern. In addition, it was individually positioned. All of these characteristics are typical of Aedes sp. eggs (Fig. 2) (Ross & Horsfall 1965).

Larva. The larva presented a short siphon with only one pair of setae 1S, an anal segment not completely encircled by a saddle, 8 comb scales on the VIII abdominal segment forming a single row of bristles and large subapical spinules (Fig. 3). All these characteristics are typical of Ae. aegypti larva (Consoli & Oliveira 1994; Darsie 1985).

Molecular identification

Nucleotide sequence of the Ae. aegypti Los Andes isolate was analyzed into the web version of NCBI databases using BLASTn. COI gene identity for this sample (NCBI ID: PV609787) matches 100% of nucleotide identity with Ae. aegypti samples from different geographic regions, like China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, among others. To determine the evolutionary position of Ae. aegypti from Los Andes, a phylogenetic inference was performed based on the COI nucleotide sequence and, compared with other mosquito species present in Chilean territory and sporadically detected species (Fig. 4). The phylogenetic tree was constructed using maximum likelihood, and sequences from Aedes albifasciatus (Macquart, 1838), Aedes sallumae (González & Reyes, 2017), Aedes vexans (Meigen, 1830), Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) and others Ae. aegypti were used for comparison and as an illustrative view of the Ae. aegypti Los Andes isolate. This analysis confirms the position of this isolated in the Ae. aegypti clade and separated from the closest Ae. albopictus, highly prevalent in the South American region.