Comportamiento estacional del Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) darlingi Root 1926 en localidades de Loreto y Madre de Dios, Perú. 1999-2000

Objectives: To determine the seasonal behavior of Anopheles darlingi in Santa Clara (Loreto) and Villa Luz (Madre de Dios) sites. Materials and methods: Between august 1999 and june 2000, we performed monthly inspection of breeding places, the collection of aquatic stages of Anopheles darlingi using the ladle method and the collection of adult mosquitoes with human baits (indoor and outdoor capture) and using Shannon traps (extradoor capture) and animal refugees, in both sites. We calculated the following indicators: positive breeding place, larvae density by ladle, human night bite index (HNBI), human hour bite index (HHBI), sporozoitic index and parity rate. Results: The HHBI in both sites was high in the rainy season. In Santa Clara, the bites from Anopheles darlingi from august to december, had an unimodal behavior, with HHBI values peaking between 19:00 and 21:00 hours; however, from march to june, the behavior was bimodal with two peaks of HHBI: between 19:00 and 22:00 hours, and between 2:00 and 4:00 hours. In Villa Luz, the behavior of the bite, was unimodal along the study period, with a peak between 21:00 and 24:00 hours. The immature species represented less than 20% of the larvae of Anopheles in the permanent breeding places. Conclusions: There was a greater population density of Anopheles darlingi in the rainy season, with different behaviors for biting by site and season. The breeding places assessed would not be important breeding places for this species.