RESUMO
Objective To investigate intra and inter species molecular variations and phylogeny of the five members of the Minimus Group of Anopheles subgenus Cellia in China: An. aconitus, An.varuna, An.jeyporiensis, An.minimus A and An.minimus C, and to report the DNA sequence divergence among these species at a mitochondrial locus (cytochrome oxidase II). Methods Single mosquito′s legs were digested to extract DNA. COII gene was amplified, sequenced and analysed; and the phylogenetic tree of members of An.minimus group was reconstructed by maximum likelihood method (DNAML). Results and Conclusion The data confirmed the presence of two cryptic species, A and C, within An.minimus complex in the research localities; and two species differed by 2.3% in the COII sequences owing to 16 nucleotide substitutions. There was less variation between the two species than other members of the Minimus Group.