Landscape Surrounding Human Settlements and Anopheles albimanus (Diptera: Culicidae) Abundance in Southern Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

Landscape characteristics that may influence important components of the Anopheles albimanus Wiedemann life cycle, including potential breeding sites, suitable diurnal resting sites, and possible sources of blood meals, were analyzed at 14 villages in a malarious area of southern Mexico. An. albimanus adults were collected weekly in each village using UV-light traps between July 1991 and August 1992. Based on rainfall, the study was divided into 6 seasonal periods. Villages were considered to have high mosquito abundance when >5 mosquitoes per trap per night were collected during any 1 of the 6 seasonal periods. The extension and frequency of 11 land cover types surrounding villages were determined using aerial photographs and subsequently verified through field surveys. Elevation was the main landscape feature that separated villages with low and high mosquito abundance. All villages with high mosquito abundance were below 25 m. Transitional and mangrove land cover types were found only in the high mosquito abundance group. Flooded areas as potential breeding sites and potential adult resting sites in unmanaged pastures were significantly more frequent in areas surrounding villages with high mosquito abundance. No significant differences in density of cattle and horses were found among village groups. Overall, surrounding breeding sites located at low elevations in flooded unmanaged pastures seemed to be the most important determinants of An. albimanus adult abundance in the villages.

Wetlands and mosquitoes: a review

“…Knowing the association between wetlands and mosquitoes is important for mosquito-borne disease as it helps to focus management. Rodriguez et al (1996) found associations between landscape features including elevation and vegetation (mangroves) and malaria vectors in Mexico. Mercer et al (2005) found significant relationships between immature mosquitoes and habitat characteristics such as water quality, in wetlands in Iowa (USA).…”

Review article The impact of remote sensing on the study and control of invertebrate intermediate hosts and vectors for disease

“…These settlements were divided into two groups according to their distance from the larval habitat class. Group 1 was composed of settlements closer than 500 m and group 2 of settlements further than 1500 m. Based on independent measurements, a landing rate of greater than 0´5 mosquitoes per human per minute (during the hours of maximum mosquito activity from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.) was used as a threshold for high adult mosquito density ( Rodriguez et al 1996 ). Group 1 was predicted as having adult mosquito densities higher than this threshold and group 2 lower.…”

A Spatial Filtering Specification for an Auto‐negative Binomial Model of Anopheles arabiensis Aquatic Habitats

“…Traditionally, regression models have been used to model complex relationships between larval abundance and environmental predictors (e.g. Savage et al 1990, Rejmankova et al 1991, Roberts et al 1991, Beck et al 1994, Rodriguez et al 1996). However, these models do not take into account the location of the samples and often fail to distinguish between different spatial patterns and scales.…”