%0 Journal Article
%T Larval Habitat Characteristics of the Genus Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) and a Checklist of Mosquitoes in Guilan Province, Northern Iran
%A S Azari-Hamidian
%J Iranian Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases
%D 2011
%I 
%X Background: Ecological data are important in the vector control management of mosquitoes. There is scattered pub-lished information about the larval habitat characteristics and ecology of the genus Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) in Iran and most of available data is in relation to malaria vectors in southern Iran.Methods: This cross sectional investigation was carried out to study the mosquito fauna and ecology in Guilan Province, northern Iran, during April每December 2000. Larvae were collected using the standard dipping technique. Larval habitat characteristics were recorded according to water situation (clear or turbid), vegetation, substrate type, sunlight situation, habitat situation (transient or permanent, running or stagnant), habitat type (natural or artificial), and water temperature. Results: In total, 1547 third- and fourth-instar larvae of Anopheles from 90 habitats were collected and morphologi-cally identified. Five species; Anopheles claviger, An.＊hyrcanus＊, An. maculipennis s.l., An. plumbeus, and An. su-perpictus were identified and respectively comprised 6.3%, 22.4%, 54.4%, 13.0%, and 3.9% of the samples. The mean and range temperatures of the larval habitat water were 19.6oC (n=14) (16每25oC), 22.6oC (n=53) (12每33oC), 23.8oC (n=52) (10每33oC), 11.5oC (n=12) (9每21oC), and 20.4oC (n=7) (12每26oC), respectively. There was a signifi-cant difference in the mean water temperatures (11.5每23.5oC) of the larval habitats of different species (P=0.000). Most of the genus larvae were collected from natural habitats (86.9%) such as river bed pools (46.4%) and rain pools (33.1%) with transient (98.3%), stagnant (99.5%) and clear (95.3%) water, with vegetation (69.9%), mud (42.0%) or gravel (39.7%) substrate in full sunlight (69.6%) or shaded (22.7%) area. A checklist of the province mosquitoes including 30 species and seven genera has been provided.Conclusion: The main larval habitats of the most abundant species, An.＊hyrcanus＊ and An. maculipennis s.l., in Guilan Province are: river bed pools, rain pools, and rice fields.
%K Anophelinae
%K Ecology
%K Iran
%K Larvae
%U http://journals.tums.ac.ir/upload_files/pdf/18837.pdf