Seasonal and Environmental Variables Related to the Abundance of Immature Mosquitoes in Rain Pools of a Peri-Urban Park of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

FISCHER, SYLVIA; URCOLA, JUAN IGNACIO

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Lugar: Lanham; Año: 2019 vol. 56 p. 716 - 724

0022-2585

The aim of the present study was to investigate the variables associatedwith the composition of mosquito species in rain pools of ?Bosque de Ezeiza?, a largeperi-urban forested park of Buenos Aires City, Argentina. A total of 12 rain poolswere sampled biweekly over a one-year period in search of mosquito immaturestages. Mosquito immature stages were present in all the occasions in which waterbodies were recorded. A total of 14 species offive genera were identified, with the highest abundances observed inautumn and spring. The total abundance variedamong dates according to previous temperature, precipitation and floodingconditions. Only one species, Psorophoracyanescens (Coquillett), was associated withextreme conditions (high temperature and prolonged period of drought). Besides drought periods, two main variables wererelated to species composition: temperature, which accounted for seasonalchanges in species composition, and flooding history, which accounted for thepredominance of floodwater mosquito species on recently flooded dates and forthat of stagnant water species on dates with a longer permanence of water. Regardingthe pools, the most important variables accounting for species composition werethe insolation level and the variability in the flooded area, with floodwatermosquitoes associated with pools with high variability in the flooded area.Interestingly, Culex (Mel.)pilosus (Dyar and Knab) showed temporal and spatial dynamics more similarto floodwater species than to stagnant water species in the rain pools studied.