%0 Journal Article
%T Diversity of Mosquito Vectors (Diptera: Culicidae) in Caxiuan£¿, Par¨¢, Brazil
%A Ulisses E. C. Confalonieri
%A Cristina Costa Neto
%J Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/741273
%X This paper presents a study based on ecological parameters represented by diversity and richness indices applied in a community of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), at the National Forest of Caxiuan£¿, Melga£¿o municipality, state of Par¨¢, in the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 25,433 specimens of culicids were collected in the study, from five field collection periods, over 10 months, between 2005 and 2006. Specimens were collected in four heights of the forest (ground level, 8£¿m, 16£¿m, and 30£¿m-canopy). Diversity indices of Shannon and Berger-Parker were obtained, and indicators of dominance of species were calculated. The species Culex portesi was dominant in this site, representing about 84% of specimens. Measures of richness and similarity (Jaccard) were obtained for the five strata of time and four height levels. According to the richness estimator abundance-based covered estimator (ACE) the greatest value occurred in April (2006), considering the levels of height to 16£¿m and on the ground. The estimates obtained have shown quantitative parameters of mosquito populations in the region of the Forest of Caxiuan£¿. 1. Introduction Ecologists and biologists measure the biological diversity of a given region or site for several reasons but usually to study the ecological and evolutionary processes and to analyze changes in diversity, similarity, and dominance of species in a time scale [1]. Although extensively used in community ecological studies of several groups of insects [2¨C4] only in the past ten years similarity studies for communities of mosquito species vectors of pathogens in the Neotropics were performed, as discussed elsewhere [5¨C11]. However, the most recent field surveys of mosquito populations in the Amazon region did not analyze species richness/diversity using quantitative estimates, such as those of Hutchings [12¨C14], Santos et al. [15], Jones et al. [16], F¨¦ et al. [17], Mondet et al. [18] and Souto [19]. In this study we have collected mosquito samples (Diptera: Culicidae) in a pristine rainforest of the Amazon at four different vertical strata of the forest and at different times of the year, during a period of a 10 months. Quantitative estimates of diversity and similarity were obtained using different indicators currently in use. 2. Materials and Methods Mosquito samples were collected at the National Forest of Caxiuan£¿, municipality of Melga£¿o, state of Par¨¢, Brazil. Field trips were performed in the months of July, September, and December 2005 and February and April of 2006. The study site was a meteorological tower (54 meters high)
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ipid/2012/741273/