Comportamiento de anopheles (Kerteszia) ledidotus zavortink, 1973 y su discriminación como posible vector de malaria en el departamento del Tolima Colombia (1)

Abstract

Entomological studies were made of a focus of P. vivax malaria in the municipalities of Cunday, Villarrica, Dolores, Prado and Purificación, Departament of Tolima, during april 1981 to may 1983. Of 2.209 anopheline mosquitoes collected from human bait all were of the subgenus Kerteszia, 99.5% of which were An. (K) lepidotus and the remainder An. (K). boliviensis. Therefore, it was concluded that An. lepidotusis the vector in this focus; this in the first report of this species being incriminated as a malaria vector in Colombia. Earlier observations in this focus had incriminated An. boliviensis due to taxonomic confusion which has been only clarified in the last 10 years. Highest An lepidotus densities occurred during January to June and peak An lepidotus density proceeded peak malaria cases by about 2 months. An. lepidotus was found to be highly exophagic (3. 7 times more human biting activity outdoors than indoors) and exophilic (92% of those feeding indoors left the house whiteout resting). Human biting is almost totally diurnal with peak biting activity between 15:00 and 18:00 hours. No evidence was found of irritability or physiological resistance to DDT. Implications of the above results in relation to malaria control measures are discussed and the present known distribution of An. lepidotus in Colombia is given.