Distribution and ecology of mosquitoes in a focus of dirofilariasis in northwestern Iran, with the first finding of filarial larvae in naturally infected local mosquitoes |
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| Authors: | S AZARI - HAMIDIAN M R YAGHOOBI - ERSHADI E JAVADIAN M R ABAI I MOBEDI Y-M LINTON R E HARBACH |
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| Institution: | Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health and Institute of Public Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran,;School of Public Health, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran,;Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health and Institute of Public Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran and;Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, London, U.K. |
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| Abstract: | A study of the distribution and ecology of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Ardebil Province of northwestern Iran, with special reference to the known dirofilariasis focus in Meshkinshahr County, was carried out in July‐August 2005 and April‐October 2006. In total, 17 533 adult mosquitoes and 3090 third‐ and fourth‐instar larvae were collected on 14 occasions and identified using morphological characters and DNA sequence data. Twenty species belonging to seven genera were found: Anopheles claviger (Meigen), An. hyrcanus (Pallas), An. maculipennis Meigen, An. pseudopictus Grassi*, An. sacharovi Favre, An. superpictus Grassi, Aedes vexans (Meigen)*, Coquillettidia richiardii (Ficalbi)*, Culex hortensis Ficalbi, Cx. modestus Ficalbi, Cx. pipiens Linnaeus, Cx. theileri Theobald, Cx. torrentium Martini*, Cx. tritaeniorhynchus Giles, Culiseta longiareolata (Macquart), Cs. annulata (Schrank)*, Cs. subochrea (Edwards), Ochlerotatus caspius (Pallas) s.l.* (= Aedes caspius sensu auctorum), Oc. geniculatus (Olivier)* (= Aedes geniculatus sensu auctorum) and Uranotaenia unguiculata Edwards (asterisks indicate new occurrence records for the province). The most prevalent species in adult catches were An. maculipennis (52%), Cx. theileri (45%) and Cx. hortensis (1%); the most prevalent species caught as larvae were Cx. theileri (27%), Cx. hortensis (21%) and An. maculipennis (19%). Anopheles maculipennis, Cx. pipiens and Cx. theileri were most widely distributed in the province. The occurrence of Cx. torrentium in Iran is verified based on differential characters of fourth‐instar larvae. Anopheles maculipennis and An. sacharovi of the Maculipennis Group were identified from their diagnostic ITS2 sequences. For the first time, cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) sequences were obtained from Iranian specimens of An. hyrcanus, An. pseudopictus, Cx. theileri and Oc. caspiuss.l. Culex theileri and An. maculipennis were found naturally infected with third‐stage (infective) larvae of Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy) and Setaria labiatopapillosa (Alessandrini) (Spirurida: Onchocercidae), respectively, for the first time in Iran. |
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| Keywords: | Culicidae cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) dirofilariasis internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) setariasis vector Iran |
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