ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Anopheline mosquitoes consist of a large number of species each of which differs from another in population, resting and feeding behaviour in relation to the prevailing conditions in the locality. A longitudinal study was carried out to investigate the population dynamics, resting and feeding behaviour of the major anopheline species found in a rain forest zone of Nigeria. METHODS: Mosquitoes resting and biting indoors were collected using WHO standard techniques and supplemented with outdoor-biting collections in the study areas between January and December 2004. Samples were sorted and identified microscopically for morphological features while molecular identification was carried out using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. RESULTS: PCR-based tests showed that both indoor and outdoor collections constitute three groups of Anopheles mosquitoes, An. gambiae s.l. Giles (68.6%), An. funestus Giles (30.7%) and An. moucheti Evans (0.7%). Of the 1342 female Anopheles mosquitoes collected indoors, 799 were caught resting and 543 were caught biting. The outdoor-biting population accounted for 28.8% of the total collections (n=1885). There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the biting activities (indoors and outdoors) of these species in four villages. However, An. arabiensis and An. moucheti were more exophagic with >60% of their biting occurring outdoors while An. gambiae and An. funestus were more endophagic with >55% of their biting occurring indoors. The human-vector contact with An. gambiae and An. funestus (indoors) was about 73.3 and 66.7%, respectively as against 27.7% in An. arabiensis and 25.3% in An. moucheti. This gave the corresponding man-biting rates (MBR) of 17.5 bites/man/night for An. gambiae, 14.6 bites/man/night for An. funestus, 6.7 bites/man/night for An. arabiensis and 4.3 bites/man/night for An. moucheti. Moreover, the number of An. gambiae and An. funestus caught resting indoors was significantly higher than the other two species (p < 0.05). The wet season collections showed thatAn. gambiae caught were more than 67% of the total catch while An. arabiensis was predominant in the dry season (chi2 = 75.44, df = 3, p < 0.01). INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: The present study highlights some aspects of the behaviour of anopheline mosquitoes in southern Nigeria which is an important component of epidemiological study of malaria. This information provides basis to the understanding of the role played by the identified anopheline species in malaria transmission and a baseline to formulate malaria control programme.