RESEARCH ARTICLE

Scientific research into the epidemiology of dengue frequently focuses on the microevolu-tion and dispersion of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. One of the world’s largest urban agglom-erations infested by Ae. aegypti is the Brazilian megalopolis of Sao Paulo, where>26,900 cases of dengue were reported until June 2015. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the genetic variability of Ae. aegypti in the Sao Paulo area have not been well studied. To reduce this knowledge gap, we assessed the morphogenetic variability of a population of Ae. aegypti from a densely urbanised neighbourhood of Sao Paulo. We tested if allelic patterns could vary over a short term and if wing shape could be a predictor of the genetic variation. Over a period of 14 months, we examined the variation of genetic (microsatellites loci) and morpho-logical (wing geometry) markers in Ae. aegypti. Polymorphisms were detected, as revealed by the variability of 20 microsatellite loci (115 alleles combined; overall Fst = 0.0358) and 18 wing landmarks (quantitative estimator Qst = 0.4732). These levels of polymorphism are higher than typically expected to an exotic species. Allelic frequencies of the loci changed over time and temporal variation in the wing shape was even more pronounced, permittin