Bionomics of <I>Anopheles minimus</I> and <I>An. fluviatilis</I> (Diptera: Culicidae) in East-Central India, Endemic for <I>falciparum</I> Malaria: Human Landing Rates, Host Feeding, and Parity

Abstract

The host feeding of Anopheles minimus Theobald and An. fluviatilis James was studied in the villages of east-central India by conducting human landing collections between 1800 and 0600 hours at monthly intervals from May 2006 to July 2007. Four species of anopheline mosquitoes, An. minimus, An. fluviatilis, An. maculatus Theobald, and An. subpictus Grassi, were collected, the former two known vector species of malaria being the most abundant (97.1%). The An. minimus complex has been identified as sibling species A and An. fluviatilis complex as species S (90.9%) and T (9.1%). Both the species were prevalent throughout the year and obtained from landing collections indoors and outdoors. The average human landing density (HLD) of An. minimus and An. fluviatilis was 1.76 and 1.78 indoors and 1.71 and 1.56 per human per night outdoors, respectively. The HLD was relatively higher during the rainy season, although not significant in the case of An. fluviatilis. The human landing activity of An. minimus and An. fluviatilis occurred between 2000 and 0400 hours and peaked during 2300-0200 hours both indoors and outdoors.