A quantitative mosquito survey on 7 villages in Punjab province, Pakistan with notes on bionomics, sampling methodology and the effect of insecticides

A total of 451,337 female and male mosquitoes comprising 43 species in 9 genera were collected during a quantitative survey of 7 suburban and rural villages in the Lahore area during 1976 and 1977 using larval, indoor resting, outdoor resting, biting and light trap collections at weekly intervals. Culex tritaeniorhynchus was the most abundant species collected comprising 51.8% of the total specimens, followed by Cx. quinquefasciatus (16.4%), Cx. pseudovishnui (6.8%), An. subpictus (4.8%) and An. culicifacies (4.7%). Bovid bait collections provided the greatest diversity and highest numbers of mosquitoes per unit of collection effort, while light traps provided the poorest diversity and lowest numbers of specimens. Most species exhibited a bimodal seasonal abundance pattern, with peaks occurring in late spring and after the cessation of the heavy monsoon rains. The spraying of houses and cattle sheds with organophosphorous insecticides was effective in controlling the endophilic resting vectors of human Plasmodia, An. culicifacies and An. stephensi, but had little effect on the partially or completely exophilic resting species.