Species Composition of Mosquitoes from Boarding School Dormitories in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the distribution, species composition, and sex ratio of indoor resting mosquitoes alongside their relationship with climatic conditions in school dormitories located in Egor, Oredo and Ikpoba-okha Local Government Areas (LGAs) respectively in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Indoor resting mosquitoes were collected with the aid of a sweep net and mechanical aspirator from randomly selected school dormitories between 08.00hr and 11.00hr from November (2011) to June (2012). The mosquitoes collected were identified using published morphological identification keys. A total of 766 mosquitoes containing four species: Culex quinquefasciatus (n=724; 94.5%), Anopheles gambiaes.l. (n=37; 4.8%), Culexannulioris (n=4; 0.5%) and Anopheles funestus (n=1; 0.1%) in descending order of importance, were collected. Cx.quinquefasciatus was the most predominant mosquito species in school dormitories across the three LGAs. Cx. annulioris and An. gambiaes.l were most abundant in school dormitories located in Oredo and Ikpoba-okha LGAs respectively. An.funestus occurred only in school dormitories located in Oredo LGA. Analysis of the relationship between meteorological data and species abundance varied significantly (P<0.05) only among An. gambiaes.l with rainfall. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the sex ratio for all species obtained from the various locations except An. gambiae and Cx. annulioris in dormitories located in Oredo LGA Results of this study revealed the high presence of mosquito-borne disease risk within the school dormitories and environ, and therefore, the urgent need for properly planned, executed and regular evaluation of control measures.