Mosquito larvicidal and ovicidal activity of puffer fish extracts against Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)

ABSTRACT

The extracts of liver (LE), ovary (OE), skin (SE) and muscle (ME) tissues of four species of puffer fishes viz., Arothron hispidus, Lagocephalus inermis, Lagocephalus scleratus and Chelonodon patoca were evaluated against larvae and eggs of three mosquito vectors, Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti. The LC50 values were 1194.26, 1382.73 (LE); 1421.42, 1982.73 (OE); 7116.86, 15038.98 (ME) and 10817.8 ppm (SE) for An. stephensi and Cx. quinquefasciatus respectively for A. hispidus. In the case of L. inermis, the LC50 values were 1163.83, 1556.1 and 2426.38 (LE); 1653.53, 2734.74 (OE); 6067.47 (ME) and 10283.04 ppm (SE) for An. stephensi, Cx. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti respectively. The LC50 values were 1509.98, 1608.69 (LE) and 1414.9, 2278.69 ppm (OE) for An. stephensi and Cx. quinquefasciatus respectively for the extracts of L. scleratus. In the case C. patoca extracts the LC50 values were 1182.29, 1543.00, 2441.03 (LE) and 1076.13, 2582.11 ppm (OE) for An. stephensi, Cx. quinquefasciatus and Ae. aegypti respectively. OE and LE of all puffer fishes exhibited zero percent egg hatchability from 600 to 1000 ppm against eggs of An. stephensi and Cx. quinquefasciatus. This study shows that puffer toxins are effective in killing the larvae and eggs of mosquitoes.