Mosquito fauna (Diptera: Culicidae) of the Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf II. Greater Tonb, Lesser Tonb and Kish Islands

Abstract

Mosquitoes of five Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf (Abu-Musa, Greater Tonb, Lesser Tonb, Kish and Qeshm), Hormozgan Province of southern Iran, were studied during 2009 (February and March) and 2010 (April, May and November). Adult mosquitoes were obtained by hand catch, total catch and night landing catch using aspirators and light traps. Larvae were collected by dipping with a 350-ml dipper. In total, 963 adults and 114 third-instar and fourth-instar larvae representing seven species belonging to four genera were collected and identified, including Anopheles stephensi Liston, Culex perexiguus Theobald, Cx. quinquefasciatus Say, Cx. sitiens Wiedemann, Cx. tritaeniorhynchus Giles, Culiseta longiareolata (Macquart) and Ochlerotatus caspius (Pallas) s.l. This is the first record of mosquitoes on the Greater Tonb, Lesser Tonb and Kish Islands.

Keywords:

• Anopheles
• Culex
• Culiseta
• Ochlerotatus
• malaria
• Iran

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to R.E. Harbach, Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London, for reviewing the manuscript. This study was financially supported by Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Project No: BMSU/HRC-87.128).