Mosquito species composition of the Dooars of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The sub Himalayan Dooars belt of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal is an endemic focal area for malaria. A survey of mosquitoes was conducted from four sites of the Central Dooars during 2006–07. The sampling sites were at Nagrakata, Binnaguri, Ballaguri, and Totopara. The different endophilic mosquito species recorded from hutments and tea garden dwellings were Anopheles minimus, An. varuna, An. maculatus, An. fluviatilis, An. vagus, An. culicifacies, An. hyrcanus, An. barbirostris, Culex quinquefasciatus, Cx. vishnui(group), Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Mansonia indiana, M. annulifera, Armigeres subalbatus and Toxorhynchites splendens. Per man-hour density (PMD) of all species were determined for the mosquitoes species. Besides a general rise in mosquito population, the predatory species, T. splendens was higher in rainy season than that of winter and summer. Anophlines comprised 55.17% of the total indoor resting collections and the different Anopheles species densities ranged from 3.79% to 12.24% of the total mosquito population. Malaria incidence in these areas is noted to be very high, particularly in Nagrakata and its surroundings. Total Culex density was 20.32% of the entire mosquito collection. Aedes and mansonia population were 7.55% and 4.98% respectively. Common mosquito growing areas were tea garden channels, streams, riverbeds, jungle pools, paddy fields, domestic muddy water passages and septic tanks. The information available in this study may help formulating an effective mosquito control strategy especially for Anopheles vectors in such endemic malarial zone of the Dooars.