POPULATION DYNAMICS OF MOSQUITO LARVAE INHABITING STANDING WATER BODIES IN RELATION TO PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS
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Date
2013
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
Mosquitoes breed in the aquatic systems which can either be man-made reservoirs or standing
water bodies like ponds, swamps, marshes and paddy fields. These water bodies act as
breeding grounds for mosquitoes, thus are responsible for the spread of mosquito borne
diseases. So a survey was conducted to study the mosquito larvae population dynamics with
an objective to find out their association with physico-chemical parameters of water in
permanent and temporary standing water bodies. For this purpose water samples were
collected at monthly intervals from four village ponds of Ludhiana district and paddy fields at
PAU campus, Ludhiana. Mosquito larvae were enumerated from the different water samples
and were identified under microscope with the help of standard morphological keys. Total
mosquito larvae population i.e larval density (LD/L) and relative density of different types of
mosquito larvae in terms of larval density index (LDI%) was calculated. Three types of
mosquito larvae i.e Aedes, Anopheles and Culex were found and their LD was recorded to be
maximum in rainy season at all the sampling sites. Culex was found to be the predominant
type of larvae in water samples collected from all the ponds with percent LDI 62.7, 76.8, 56.6,
and 87.6% respectively at Noorwala, Kasabad, Kaneja and Sujatwala villages as compared to
other two genera of mosquito. Mosquito larvae population count was quite low in paddy
fields as compared to village ponds. Estimation of different types of physical and chemical
parameters from all the water samples collected from ponds and paddy fields revealed that
mosquito larvae population was found to be positively correlated with temperature and
alkalinity, while dissolved oxygen showed a negative association, other parameters tested
were found to show non-significant correlation.
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