Influence of climatic factors on Psorophora (Janthinosoma) albigenu in Pantanal landscape, Mato Grosso State, Brazil

Abstract

In order to assess the influence of climatic variations in temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall upon the population density of Psorophora albigenu (Peryassú, 1908) in its natural habitat, samplings were carried out at different times of the year in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Mosquitoes were captured with the use of suction tubes and Shannon traps during 2 different periods of the day and 1 at night. A total of 2,637 Ps. albigenu specimens were captured, including 497 (18.8%) in March 2009, 1,240 (47.0%) in January 2010, and 484 (18.4%) in January 2011. These months represented 84.2% of this species occurrence during the collection period. November was the month of the lowest occurrence of the species, with only 10 (0.4%) specimens collected in 2009 and 8 (0.3%) specimens in 2010. The climatological variable that presented a linear correlation coefficient within the 95% confidence interval was rainfall, with a linear correlation indicator of 0.793, above the relevance factor of 0.708, showing a relationship between the frequency of Ps. albigenu and rainfall of the region.