Article
Bromeliad-inhabiting mosquitoes in an urban botanical garden of dengue endemic Rio de Janeiro. Are bromeliads productive habitats for the invasive vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus?
Registro en:
MOCELLIN, Márcio Goulart; et al. Bromeliad-inhabiting mosquitoes in an urban botanical garden of dengue endemic Rio de Janeiro. Are bromeliads productive habitats for the invasive vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus?. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. v.104, n.8, p.1171–1176, 2009.
0074-0276
1678-8060
Autor
Mocellin, Márcio Goulart
Simões, Taynãna César
Nascimento, Teresa Fernandes Silva do
Teixeira, Maria Lucia França
Lounibos, Leon Philip
Oliveira, Ricardo Lourenço de
Resumen
Immatures of both Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus have been found in water-holding
bromeliad axils in Brazil. Removal of these plants or their treatment with insecticides in public
and private gardens have been undertaken during dengue outbreaks in Brazil despite uncertainty as
to their importance as productive habitats for dengue vectors. From March 2005-February 2006,
we sampled 120 randomly selected bromeliads belonging to 10 species in a public garden less than
200 m from houses in a dengue-endemic neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. A total of 2,816
mosquito larvae and pupae was collected, with an average of 5.87 immatures per plant per
collection. Culex (Microculex) pleuristriatus and Culex spp of the Ocellatus Group were the most
abundant culicid species, found in all species of bromeliads; next in relative abundance were
species of the genus Wyeomyia. Only two individuals of Ae. aegypti (0.07%) and five of Ae.
albopictus (0.18%) were collected from bromeliads. By contrast, immatures of Ae. aegypti were
found in manmade containers in nearly 5% of nearby houses. These results demonstrate that
bromeliads are not important producers of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus and, hence, should not
be a focus for dengue control. However, the results of this study of only one year in a single area
may not represent outcomes in other urban localities where bromeliads, Ae. aegypti and dengue
coincide in more disturbed habitats.