Abundância e diversidade de mosquitos acrodendrófilos (diptera, culicomorpha: culicidae) coletados com diferentes larvitrampas em assentamento rural amazônico

Abstract

Acrodendrophilus mosquitoes are characterized by preferentially developing their life cycle in the canopy of trees, however anthropic actions, in particular deforestation, impact the distribution and abundance of these insects. In the breeding grounds of immature mosquitoes, the disturbed habitat and the type of breeding site can change abiotic conditions, such as pH and dissolved oxygen in the water, in addition to the interaction dynamics with other species that share the same breeding site. In view of this, the objective of this work was to verify the abundance and diversity of acrodendrophilus mosquitoes in environments with different levels of deforestation and to know which biotic and abiotic factors correlate with the fauna of immature Culicidae. The study was conducted in a forest fragment in the Rio Pardo Settlement Project, Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas. Six sampling events were carried out during the year 2021, three collections in the period with the highest rainfall (January, March and April/2021) and three in the period with the lowest rainfall (July, August and September/2021). To collect the immatures, larvitraps made of plastic containers, cut tires and bamboo internodes were used, installed in the tree canopy in 18 sampling points, divided into points called high deforestation and low deforestation. A total of 2,667 immature mosquitoes distributed in 10 genera and 19 species were collected. The greatest diversity and evenness occurred in the low deforestation points, however there was no significant difference in comparison with the most deforested places. There was a significant difference in the abundance and diversity of mosquitoes between the larval traps. The parameters of pH and dissolved O2 in water did not correlate with mosquito abundance. Non-Culicidae fauna found in the larvitraps correlated positively with mosquito abundance. There was no significant difference in mosquito abundance between periods with higher and lower rainfall. Larvitraps as phytotelmata analogues showed that these traps can be used as experimental breeding grounds. Among the species found in this survey, some are considered vectors of arboviruses endemic to the Amazon region.