After a useful tip from @dpryan79 (from Biostars) I looked at PyCogent's source code and it turns out the only way I could view species names available was by actually logging into the MySQL server and listing the databases, the database names themselves require a naming convention whereby the first two strings delimited by underscores (_) are the genus and species names respectively.
So by logging into the mysql server via terminal:
mysql -hlocalhost -uuser1 -ppass1
Then typing:
SHOW DATABASES
I can see the species available by looking at the names of each database, specifically the first two strings delimited by underscores, e.g. the following databases listed:
anopheles_gambiae_core_1312_73_1
anopheles_arabeinsis_core_1312_73_1
anopheles_funestus_core_1312_73_1
anopheles_gambiaeM_core_1312_73_1
Suggest I have the following species available: anopheles gambiae, anopheles arabeinsis, anopheles funestus
and anopheles gambiae type M