Survey of Anopheles Mosquitoes in Sumba Island, Indonesia

In August 2007, mosquitoes were collected using four different collection methods at 2 upland interior and 2 coastal villages in West Sumba District, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. Methods included human-baited and unbaited tent and malaise traps, human-landing collections (HLC), and unbaited CDC light traps. Mosquitoes were identified to species by morphological characters and all anophelines were tested for malaria circumsporozoite protein (CSP) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). During six trap nights, 4,174 Anopheles mosquitoes belonging to 13 species were captured and identified: An. aconitus, An. annularis, An. barbirostris, An. flavirostris, Hyrcanus Group species, An. indefinitus, An. kochi, An. leucosphyrus group, An. maculatus s.l., An. subpictus s.l., An. sundaicus s.l., An. tessellatus, and An. vagus. Of potential disease vectors, An. annularis, An. subpictus, and An. vagus were the most frequently collected species in the upland interior sites, whereas An. sundaicus, An. subpictus, and An. vagus were most commonly found along the coast. The predominant species from evening human-landing collections (mosquitoes per human) were An. subpictus and An. vagus in the upland interior and An. sundaicus along the coast. All mosquitoes were non-reactive for Plasmodium CSP. One specimen of the An. leucosphyrus group was captured from indoor HLC in Tenateke Village, an upland interior location. This finding appears to represent a new collection record for Sumba Island.