Mosquito community composition in dynamic landscapes from the Atlantic Forest biome (Diptera, Culicidae)

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Mosquito community composition in dynamic landscapes from the Atlantic Forest biome (Diptera, Culicidae). Considering that some species of Culicidae are vectors of pathogens, both the knowledge of the diversity of the mosquito fauna and how some environment factors influence in it, are important subjects. In order to address the composition of Culicidae species in a forest reserve in southern Atlantic Forest, we compared biotic and abiotic environmental determinants and how they were associated with the occurrence of species between sunset and sunrise. The level of conservation of the area was also considered. The investigation was carried out at Reserva Natural do Morro da Mina, in Antonina, state of Paraná, Brazil. We performed sixteen mosquito collections employing Shannon traps at three-hour intervals, from July 2008 to June 2009. The characterization of the area was determined using ecological indices of diversity, evenness, dominance and similarity. We compared the frequency of specimens with abiotic variables, i.e., temperature, relative humidity and pluviosity. Seven thousand four hundred ten mosquito females were captured. They belong to 48 species of 12 genera. The most abundant genera were Anopheles, Culex, Coquillettidia, Aedes and Runchomyia. Among the species, the most abundant was Anopheles cruzii, the primary vector of Plasmodium spp. in the Atlantic Forest. Results of the analyses showed that the abiotic variables we tested did not influence the occurrence of species, although certain values suggested that there was an optimum range for the occurrence of culicid species. It was possible to detect the presence of species of Culicidae with different epidemiologic profiles and habitat preference.

Effects of anthropogenic landscape changes on the abundance and acrodendrophily of Anopheles (Kerteszia) cruzii, the main vector of malaria parasites in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil

“…As observed in many studies, An. cruzii tends to be the dominant, or at least one of the most abundant, species of Culicidae in the humid forests of the coastal slopes of Southeastern and Southern Brazil, and its population density is directly related to the abundance of bromeliads [16, 20, 23, 48, 49]. Recently, Chaves et al [50] studied the influence of landscape on the distribution and abundance of An.…”

Habitat use by Neotropical mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae): vegetation structure and edge effects

“…This study has contributed to furthering the knowledge on the microhabitat of Culicidae species occurring in Brazil. The relationship of the analysed species with the surrounding vegetation was reported herein, and some species may possibly act as bioindicators of environmental quality (Guimarães et al 2003; Guedes and Navarro‐Silva 2014). Additionally, the presence of species known as vectors of Yellow Fever was also documented.…”

First records of the occurrence of twelve species of Sabethini (Diptera, Culicidae) in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil

“…The distribution of mosquito species is presented based on the main natural characteristics of Paraná, according to the Maack (1981) and Wons (1985). The review of articles published after the lists mentioned above include: for Rio Grande do Sul: Gomes et al (2010); for Paraná: Anjos and Navarro-Silva (2008), Bona and Navarro-Silva (2008), Tissot and Navarro-Silva (2008), Marchi et al (2010), Müller et al (2012), Guedes and Navarro-Silva (2014) and Lopes et al (2014); and for Santa Catarina: Gomes et al (2009), Reis et al (2010), Favretto et al (2013), Müller et al (2014), Santos et al (2014) and Ferreira- de-Freitas et al (2016).…”

“…Studies on the fauna of mosquitoes in regions of Paraná that have remaining forests have demonstrated the existence of populations of Sabethini (Bona and Navarro-Silva 2008, Tissot and Navarro-Silva 2008, Muller at al. 2008, 2012, Guedes and Navarro-Silva 2014. In this study, we report new records from protected and residual forests in the state.…”