Ecology of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in areas of Serra do Mar State Park, State of São Paulo, Brazil. I - Monthly frequency and climatic factors

RESUMO

The ecology of mosquitoes were studied (Diptera Culicidae) in areas of Serra do Mar State Park, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Systematized monthly human bait collections were made three times a day, for periods of 2 or 3 h each, in sylvatic and rural areas for 24 consecutive months (January 1991 to December 1992). A total of 24,943 specimens of adult mosquitoes belonging to 57 species were collected during 622 collective periods. Coquillettidia chrysonotum was the most frequent collected mosquito (45.8 per cent) followed by Aedes serratus (6.8 per cent), Cq. venezuelensis (6.5 per cent), Psorophora ferox (5.2) and Ps. albipes (3.1 per cent). The monthly averages of temperature and relative humidity were inserted in the ten-year average limits of maximum and minimum of the previous ten-years. Rainfall accompanied the curve of the ten-year averages. Those climatic factors were influential in the incidence of some species; temperature Anopheles cruzii, An. mediopunctatus, Ae. scapularis, Ae. fulvus, Cq. chrysonotum, Cq. venezuelensis, Runchomyia reversa, Wyeomyia dyari, Wy. confusa, Wy. shannoni, Wy. theobaldi and Limatus flavisetosus; relative humidity Ae. serratus, Ae. scapularis, Cq. venezuelensis and Ru. reversa; rainfall An. cruzii, Ae. scapularis, Ae. fulvus, Cq. venezuelensis Ru. reversa, Wy. theobaldi and Li. flavisetosus.