Background
The mosquito
Anopheles
(
Kerteszia
)
cruzii
is the main vector of human and simian malaria in the Atlantic Forest. This species is usually abundant in the forests where it occurs, preferring to live and feed on canopies, behaviour known as acrodendrophily. However, in several studies and locations this species has been observed in high density near the ground in the forest. In this study, it was hypothesized that factors associated with anthropogenic landscape changes may be responsible for the variation in abundance and acrodendrophily observed in
An. cruzii
.
Methods
The study was conducted in a conservation unit in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Monthly entomological collections were performed from March 2015 to April 2017, and the resulting data were used with data from another study conducted in the same area between May 2009 and June 2010. Mosquitoes were collected from five sites using CDC and Shannon traps. Landscape composition and configuration metrics were measured, and generalized linear mixed-effect models were used to investigate the relationship between these metrics and variations in the abundance and acrodendrophily of
An. cruzii
.
Results
The model that showed the best fit for the relationship between landscape metrics and
An. cruzii
abundance suggests that an increase in the proportion of forest cover leads to an increase in the abundance of this mosquito, while the model that best explained variations in
An. cruzii
acrodendrophily suggests that an increase in total forest-edge length leads to greater activity by this species at ground level.
Conclusion
While the data indicate that changes in landscape due to human activities lead to a reduction in
An. cruzii
abundance, such changes may increase the contact rate between this species and humans living on the edges of forest fragments where
An. cruzii
is found. Future studies should, therefore, seek to elucidate the effect of these landscape changes on the dynamics of
Plasmodium
transmission in the Atlantic Forest, which according to some studies includes the participation of simian hosts.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s12936-019-2744-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.