ISSN - 0972-0847

Columban J. Life Sci.

Vol. 12

No. 1 & 2

100-103

2011

DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF ANOPHELINE FAUNA IN HAZARIBAG, JHARKHAND, INDIA

Saba Qamar, M. Raziuddin, M. M. Hussain and B. K. Gupta
University Department of Zoology, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag 825301, Jharkhand Email: sabawali786@yahoo.in

Received 18 March 2011, Revised 28 July 2011, Accepted 12 November 2011 ABSTRACT
The survey embodies the results of anopheline collections made from fixed and random catching stations from different parts of Hazaribag town and adjoining areas of Jharkhand state, a high endemic area of malaria, during 2009-2010. A total of 13 species of Anopheles viz, Anopheles stephensi,. An.subpictus, An. culicifacies, An. fluviatilis, An. vagus, An. pallidus, An. annularis, An. varuna, An. macculatus, An. aconitus, An. jamesii, An. splendidus, An. nigerrimus have been collected from human dwellings, cattle sheds and mixed dwellings of various localities. An. annularis, constituting 25.64 percent of total collection was found to be the most dominant species in Hazaribag which prefer to rest mainly in cattle sheds. The next dominant species in the locality was An. subpictus.Three malarial vectors viz, Anopheles stephensi, An. culicifacies and An. fluviatilis have been recorded.

Key words: Anopheles, Malaria vectors, Hazaribag

INTRODUCTION Anapheline mosquitoes, the vectors of malaria, occur throughout India. Depending upon the physiography and climate, the seasonal prevalence of this mosquito varies. These are mainly nocturnal in activities and spend the day time in suitable shelters. In the past Senior White (1943) recorded a total of twenty Anopheles spp from Hazaribag ranges including Ranchi Plateau and identified An. fluviatilis as the major vector of malaria in Hazaribag ranges. Roy (1997) recorded only two species, A. annuharis and A. culicifacies, from Hazaribag town. In another survey conducted during 19961998, Singh and Raziuddin (1997) recorded a total of ten Anopheles spp. in four blocks of Hazaribag district. Hazaribag (230 59 45.54"N, 850 22 14.34"E, elev. 2033 ft) is a famous health hill resort having a population of 1,734,005 (2011 census) (Fig. 1). It has favorable geo-climatic and ecological conditions conducive for mosquito breeding and perennial malaria transmission. It is a high endemic area of mala ria infection with a n intense seasonal occurrence from July to October (yearly 7.3% SPR - State Malaria Control Program Annual Report Ranchi, Jharkhand, Directorate of Health Services;
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2008). Since malaria endemicity of an area can be fully ascertained by conducting malaria survey associated with the survey of its vectors, the present work was undertaken to know the present status of various anophelines in Hazaribag sadar subdivision of Jharkhand state. The survey was also undertaken with a view to find if there is any change in the population of Anopheles spp in Hazaribag since the last report of Singh and Raziuddin (1997). MATERIALS AND METHODS A survey was conducted from November 2009 to October 2010 in various parts of Hazaribag town and adjoining areas to collect adults of different species of Anopheles from three main resting habitats viz; human dwellings, cattle sheds and mixed dwellings. Besides these, occasional searches were made in bushes, grasses and under the culverts of Khirgoan nallah. Some of these habitats were made fixed and some were the random catching stations (Fig. 1). Surveys of the fixed stations were conducted on weekly basis during day hours, between 7.00 A.M. to 11.00 am. Night surveys were restricted to a few houses and cattle sheds in Hazaribag town.

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DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF ANOPHELINE FAUNA Mosquitoes were collected using a sucking tube or Of the total catches, only 83 (3.44 percent) were test tube as described in the WHO manual (1975). males and the rest (96.56 percent) were females. Identification of the adult anophelines was done on The females belonged to both blood fed and unfed the basis of their morphological features using the categories. The number of fed and unfed females keys provided by Puri (1954), Rao (1984) and Das was 1332 (57.02 percent) and 1004 (42.97 percent) et al. (1990). respectively. Large number of unfed females indicated the presence of breeding sites near the sites of collections. Details of anopheline collections are depicted in Table-1. The collected specimens belonged to 13 species as under. 1. Anopheles stephensi Liston, 1901 (a) An. stephensi Var mysorensis
JHARKHAND Jharkhand

Fig. 1. Study area. Black asterisk- fixed catching stations, White asterisk!- random catching stations RESULT AND DISCUSSION A total of 2,419 adult anophelines were collected in the survey. Out of these 507 specimens were collected from the human dwellings, 1169 from the cattle sheds and 622 from the mixed dwellings. It is noteworthy that 141 specimens were collected from under culverts, shaded banks of towns main drain (nallah), bushes and grasses near human and animal dwellings.
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(b) An. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

stephensi type form, Anopheles subpictus Grassi, 1899, Anopheles culicifacies Giles, 1901, Anopheles fluviatilis James, 1902, Anopheles vagus Donitz, 1902, Anopheles pallidus Theobald, 1901 Anopheles annularis Van der Wulp, 1884,

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8. Anopheles varuna Iyengar, 1924, 9. Anopheles maculatus Theobald, 1901, 10. Anopheles aconitus Donitz, 1902, 11. Anopheles jamesii Theobald, 1901, 12. Anopheles splendidus Koidzumi, 1920, and 13. Anopheles nigerrimus Gites, 1900
Table-1: Record of collections of adult Female Anopheles during 20092011 in Hazaribag Mixed Sl. Cattle Name of Species House Dwelling/ Total Percentage No. Sheds Other places 1. An. stephensi Var 78 108 34 220 9.41 mysorensis 2. An. stephensi 12 97 60 169 7.2 type form 3. An. subpictus 49 283 103 435 18.62 4. An. culicifacies 42 165 66 273 11.68 5. An. fluviatilis 76 131 128 335 14.34 6. An. vagus 27 08 17 52 2.22 7. An. pallidus 16 12 28 1.19 8. An. annularis 109 348 142 599 25.64 9. An. varuna 13 04 15 32 1.36 10. An. maculates 62 23 34 119 5.09 11. An. aconitus 08 02 11 21 0.89 12. An. jamesii 10 07 14 31 1.32 13. An. splendidus 04 02 08 14 0.59 14. An. nigerrimus 01 05 02 08 0.34 Total 507 1169 622 2336
Fig. 2. Percentage of anopheline mosquitoes in the collections (2009-2010)

Senior White (1943) had recorded a total of 20 species of Anopheles in the Hazaribag ranges. Seven species viz, An. barbirostris, An. karwari, An. ramsayi, An. theobaldi, An. moghulensis, An. jeyporiensis and An. tessellatus recorded by him have not been recorded in the present survey. While conducting a survey during 1996-1997, Singh and Raziuddin (1997) had recorded only ten species of anophelines from four blocks of Hazaribag district. Thus in the present survey four other species (An. aconitus, An. jamesii, An. splendidus and An. nigerrimus) have been recorded in the locality. An. moghulensis recorded by Singh and Raziuddin (1997) has not been recorded in this survey. The relative abundance of various anopheline species that occur in Hazaribag sadar was found to be An. annularis > An. subpictus > An. fluviatilis > An. culicifacies > An. stephensi Var mysorensis > An. stephensi type form > An. maculatus > An. vagus
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COLUMBAN J. LIFE SCI. VOL. 12 (1&2), 2011 > An. varuna > An. jamesii > An. aconitus > An. pallidus > An. spendidus > An. nigerrimus. From Fig. 2 it is apparent that in Hazaribag and its suburbs, An. annularis is the dominant species while the next dominant species is An. subpictus. The results on the abundance of different anophelines in Hazaribag are largely similar to those described by Singh and Raziuddin (1997). Out of the 13 recorded species of Anopheles, An. stephnsi, An. culicifacies and An. fluviatilis are the established and most efficient vectors of malaria in India including Bihar and Jharkhand (Rao, 1984). The remaining species viz. An. vagus, An varuna, An. annularis, An. jamessi, An. macculatus, An. pallidus, An. splendidus, An. nigerrimus, An. aconitus and An. subpictus are either not recognized as malaria vectors or are secondary local vectors. Earlier Senior White and Das (1938) had found that in Singhbhum area of Jharkhand An. varuna and An. minimus along with An. stephensi were the main vectors of malaria. An. varuna has been recorded in the present survey but its relation to disease in Hazaribag is yet to be investigated. Based on the results of stomach dissections, Singh and Raziuddin (1997) had identified An. annularis as a vector of malaria in Hazaribag. However, vectorial status of this species along with others in the region need further detailed studies. From Table-1 it is evident that 35.45% of An. stephensi var mysorensis were collected from human dwellings, 49.09% from cattle sheds and 15.45% from mixed dwellings and other places like culverts of drain. Contrary to this only 7.1% An. stephensi type form were collected from houses, 57.39% from cattle sheds and 35.5% from mixed dwellings. 11.26% An. subpictus were collected from houses, 65.05% from cattle sheds and 28.67 from mixed dwellings and other places. In contrast to the above described species, most of An. vagus (51.92%) and An. pallidus (57.14%) were collected from houses. Simlarly, 52.10% of An. macculatus were collected from houses. Thus, a large number of these three species were found to prefer human dwellings as their day time resting places. Collection of An. vagus and An. macculatus from cattle sheds and mixed dwellings were 15.38% and 32.69% and 19.32% and 28.57% respectively. It was interesting to note that not a single specimen of An. pallidus was collected from cattle sheds while, 42.85% catches were from mixed dwellings.

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DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF ANOPHELINE FAUNA An. annularis which was found to be the most Singh, M. K. and Raziuddin, M. (1997): Survey of anopheline mosquitoes in Hazaribag (Chotanagpur, Bihar). dominant species in Hazaribag preferred to rest Columban J. Life Sci. 5: 246-248. mainly in cattle sheds from where 58.09% catches State Malaria Control Program Annual Report 2008 Ranchi, were made. Only 18.19% of this species were caught Jharkhand, Directorate of Health Services. from human dwellings and 23.7% from mixed W.H.O. (1975). Manual on practical entomology in malaria, dwellings. As far as An. varuna is concerned 40.62% Part II. Geneva. were collected from houses, 12.5% from cattle sheds and 46.87% from mixed dwelling and other places. Although An. aconitus, An. jamesii and An. splendidus were collected in small numbers, their maximum collections were made from mixed dwellings (52.38%, 45.16% and 57.14 respectively). Collections of these three species from houses were 38.09%, 32.25% and 28.57% respectively and the lowest percentage of catches i.e. 9.52%, 22.58% and 14.28% respectively were from cattle sheds. During the survey only eight specimens of An. nigerrimus were caught and the percentage of collections from houses, cattle sheds and mixed dwellings were 12.5%, 62.5% and 25.0% respectively. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Dr. D. N. Sadhu, Dr. A. K. Sharma and Dr. K. K. Gupta, University Dept. of Zoology, VBU for their valuable help during the survey, support and encouragement. Thanks are also due to Sri Satya Prakash, Neo Human Foundation, Hazaribag for his continued help in the collection of mosquitoes. We are also thankful to Dr. Mohd. Sohail, Department of Zoology, VBU & Department of Medical Parasitology, New York University School of Medicine, New York for critically going thrhrough the manuscript. REFERENCES Das, B.P., Rajgopal, R. and Akiyama, J. (1990): Pictorial key
to the species of Indian anopheline mosquitoes. Zoology, 2(3): 131-162. Puri, I. M. (1954). Synoptic table for the identification of the anopheline mosquitoes of India. Govt. of India Press, Calcutta. Rao, T. R. (1984): The Anophelines of India. Malaria Research Centre. Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi Roy, S. (1997): Haematological studies on malaria infected patients of Sadar Block, Hazaribag. Ph. D. Thesis, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag. Senior White, R. (1943): On malaria transmission in Hazaribagh ranges including Ranchi plateau. J.Mal. Instl. Ind. 5: 207-231. Senior White and Das (1938): On malaria transmission in the Singhbhum hills Part II. An experiment with trap nets. J. Mal. Instl. Ind. 3: 413-425.

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