Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) survey in parks of São Paulo City I

Abstract

Given the scarcity of information on mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in the city of São Paulo, led the authors to propose a project to investigate this group of insects in some of the green areas, represented by municipal parks. The captures were undertaken in 35 municipal parks in the south, north and central-west of the city, between October 2010 and February 2011, during daylight. Immature forms were collected from breeding places with entomological ladles and suction pumps and adults from resting places with electric aspirators (12V battery). The identification of the specimens was undertaken in the Culicid laboratory of the Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo. In this first phase of the project, a total of 5,129 specimens distributed in 11 genera and 41 taxonomic categories were captured. Culex (Cux) quinquefasciatus was the most abundant species. The genus Aedes was represented mainly by Ae. (Och) fluviatilis and Ae. (Ste) albopictus. Ae. (Ste) aegypti and Ae. (Och) scapularis were frequent in some parks. Other genera were less abundant. Of the parks investigated, 25.7% presented more than ten groups of species, notably the Anhanguera with 26; on the other hand, 57.1% had five or fewer groups. Despite the anthropic pressure on these environments, several culicid species make use of these habitats as refuges. It is recommended that these environments be kept under constant epidemiological surveillance as some of the species collected constitute public health threats as pathogen vectors to the human population.