Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Artigo Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

Ecological aspects of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in a fragment of seasonal dry tropical forest (Caatinga) in Brazil

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 190; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jaridenv.2021.104528

1095-922X

Renato César de Melo Freire, Taciano Moura Barbosa, Jéssica Teixeira Jales, Maria de Fátima Freire de Melo Ximenes, Roseli La Corte, Renata Antonaci Gama,

Malaria Research and Control

Seasonally dry tropical forests are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to the effects of anthropogenic disturbances, and yet their biodiversity is still poorly known. In this study we investigated the composition, activity, structure, and effect of seasonality in mosquitoes' assemblages of a conservation Caatinga domain unit. The collections consisted of the monthly installation of two Shannon traps, set at a distance of 8 km between them, and operated by two captors, who collected simultaneously for 3 h (17:00h to 20:00h), totaling 288 h of sampling over two years. In total, 1261 specimens belonging to at least 20 sp. of the subfamilies Anophelinae and Culicinae were captured. Culicinae was the most representative subfamily, with 99.3% of all collected specimens, while for Anophelinae only nine specimens of the species Anopheles albitarsis Lynch Arribálzaga, 1878 s.l. were registered. Among the species of Culicinae, Aedes scapularis was the most abundant (39.9%), followed by Mansonia wilsoni (21.6%), Culex spp. (12.8%) and Aedes taeniorhynchus (12.4%). The Culicidae assemblage was more abundant and diverse in the wettest months and the twilight hours (17:00h to 18:00h). Our data indicate that Anopheles species are sensitive to Caatinga arid conditions and that mosquito populations are controlled by rainfall.