Studies were conducted to determine the selection of humans, chickens and rabbits by Culicidae in three different environments in the province of Chaco, Argentina. Mosquitoes were collected fortnightly using cylindrical metal traps containing animal bait (chickens and rabbits). The mosquitoes were collected between June 2001-May 2002. During the same period and with the same frequency, mosquitoes biting the human operators of the traps were collected during the first 15 min of exposure within different time intervals: from 09:00 am-11:00 am, 01:00 pm-03:00 pm, 05:00 pm-07:00 pm and 09:00 pm-10:00 pm. A total of 19,430 mosquitoes of 49 species belonging to 10 genera were collected.
Culex species mainly selected chicken bait and
Wyeomyia species selected rabbit bait.
Ochlerotatus and
Psorophora species were more abundant in rabbit-baited traps.
Anopheles triannulatus
,
Coquillettidia nigricans
,
Ochlerotatus scapularis
,
Mansonia titillans
and
Psorophora albigenu
showed a strong attraction for human bait. The
Anopheles,
Coquillettidia,
Culex and
Mansonia species were more active between 05:00 pm-09:00 pm, while
Ochlerotatus,
Psorophora,
Haemagogus and
Wyeomyia were most active from 09:00 am-07:00 pm. This study provides additional information about the biology and ecology of arbovirus vectors in Chaco.
