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 prov ince of northern iran. the mosquito larvae were collected by dipping method and larval habitat characteristics recorded ac cording to hydro-ecological features. in total, 3937 larvae of the genus culex from 92 larval breeding sites were collected. six spe cies of the genus culex; cx. mimeticus, cx. pipiens, cx. theileri, cx. tritaeniorhynchus, cx. hortensis, and cx. terri tans 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%), dis carded 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 domes ticated animals, must be extensively studied.