ABSTRACT
The present paper aims to increase the knowledge on the sand fly fauna in the cerrado areas of Maranhão state in urban, rural and forest environments. The research was carried out from October 2007 to September 2008, between 18:00h and 06:00h, in the municipality of Chapadinha, northeast Maranhão. For insect sampling, CDC light traps were set up in peridomicile and domicile areas of urban and rural zones as well as in Cerrado and Gallery forests. The total of 1,401 specimens belonging to 17 species were sampled, all within the genus Lutzomyia. Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva) (52.5 percent), Lu. evandroi (Costa Lima & Antunes) (18.3 percent), Lu. whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho) (12.1 percent), Lu. lenti (Mangabeira) (4.7 percent) and Lu. termitophila (Martins, Falcão & Silva) (4.0 percent) were the most frequently collected. From an epidemiological viewpoint, five from all of the collected species are vectors of leishmaniasis: Lu. longipalpis, Lu. whitmani, Lu. flaviscutellata (Mangabeira), Lu. gomezi (Nitzulescu) and Lu. chagasi (Costa Lima). Lutzomyia chagasi was registered for the first time in Maranhão state and Lu. saulensis (Floch & Abonnenc), Lu. monstruosa (Floch & Abonnenc) and Lu. gomezi were found for the first time in the eastern part of the state, since they had been reported only in the Amazonian region of Maranhão. Regarding to the studied environments, the urban chicken house had the highest number of specimens collected (801), while the Gallery Forest was the most diverse (15 species). This study demonstrates that the northeast cerrado exhibits a mixed sand fly fauna characterized by an extremely important species vectors assortment involved in the epidemiological cycle of leishmaniasis in Maranhão state.
Subject(s)
Animals , Female , Male , Psychodidae , Brazil , DemographyABSTRACT
Estudou-se a distribuição e diversidade de espécies de Anopheles em 123 municípios do Estado do Maranhão, Brasil. O método básico foi a captura de fêmeas dentro e nos arredores das habitações humanas, em intervalos compreendidos entre 18h e 6h, no período de janeiro de 1992 a dezembro de 2001. Foram capturados 84.467 exemplares distribuídos em 24 espécies, com o predomínio de A. triannulatus sensu lato (20.788), A. darlingi (19.083), A. nuneztovari (16.884), A. albitarsis s.l. (14.352), A. aquasalis (8.202) e A. evansae (2.885). As outras 18 espécies juntas representaram apenas 2,7 por cento. As espécies encontradas no maior número de municípios foram: A. albitarsis s.l. (109 municípios), A. triannulatus s.l. (106), A. nuneztovari (93), A. darlingi (87) e A. evansae (64). A riqueza e a ampla distribuição das espécies de anofelinos no Maranhão concordam com a posição geográfica do estado, entre as macrorregiões que caracterizam o Brasil, resultando em uma fauna mista, com elementos representativos dessas regiões.
We studied the distribution and diversity of Anopheles species in 123 counties (municipalities) in the State of Maranhão, Brazil. The basic method consisted of capturing female specimens inside and around human dwellings between 6 PM and 6 AM from January 1992 to December 2001. A total of 84,467 specimens belonging to 24 species were captured, with a predominance of A. triannulatus sensu lato (20,788), A. darlingi (19,083), A. nuneztovari (16,884), A. albitarsis s.l. (14,352), A. aquasalis (8.202), and A. evansae (2,885). The other 18 species together accounted for only 2.7 percent of the total. The species found in the most counties were A. albitarsis s.l. (109 counties), A. triannulatus s.l. (106), A. nuneztovari (93), A. darlingi (87), and A. evansae (64). The richness and wide distribution of anopheline species in Maranhão agree with the State's geographic position among Brazil's macro-regions, resulting in a mixed fauna with representative elements from these regions.