Larval Habitat Characteristics of Mosquitoes of the Genus Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) in Guilan Province, Iran

An investigation was carried out during April to December 2000 to study mosquito fauna and ecology in Guilan Province of northern Iran. The mosquito larvae were collected by dipping method and larval habitat characteristics recorded according to hydro-ecological features. In total, 3937 larvae of the genus Culex from 92 larval breeding sites were collected. Six species of the genus Culex; Cx. mimeticus, Cx. pipiens, Cx. theileri, Cx. tritaeniorhynchus, Cx. hortensis, and Cx. territans were identified in the province and respectively comprised 10.3%, 47.2%, 2.2%, 31%, 6.5%, and 2.8% of the samples. Most of the larvae were collected from the natural habitats (75.6%) such as river edges (6.5%), riverbed pools (28.2%), rain pools (47.8%), stream edges (9.4%), grasslands (1.9%), marshes (2.8%), and hoof-prints (3.4%) and others from artificial habitats (24.4%) including rice fields (32.1%), irrigation channels (7.1%), wells (16.4%), discarded concrete tubes (33.1%), discarded tires (11.0%), and agricultural water-storage pools (0.3%). The ecology of Cx. pipiens and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus, which are the most prevalent species and potentially involved in the transmission of many pathogens to humans and domesticated animals, must be extensively studied.