Study of the mosquito larval diversity in the artificial breeding habitat of Gangtok, Sikkim

摘要

With the growing urbanization, the number of discarded containers and construction of drains hasincreased considerably in Gangtok which may provide a conducive breeding habitat for mosquito larva.Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the mosquito larval diversity in the artificialbreeding habitat of Gangtok. A random sampling was done from the discarded buckets, tanks, tyres,drains at seven different sites during the months of July to October 2017. A total of 247 mosquito larvaewas collected from seven sampling sites. The species observed in the different sampling sites were Aedesalbopictus, Aedes atropalpus, Ochlerotatus japonicus, Culex pipiens, Culex territans, Ochlerotatustaeniorhynchus, and Ochlerotatus trivittatus. Among the observed species Ochlerotatus japonicus wasfound to have the maximum abundance (32%). Correlation analysis tests showed the significant positivecorrelation between the larval abundance and the volume of water (r=0.94, P=0.002). As per theShannon-Wiener index, highest diversity was observed at Fifth mile (1.37) and least in Gangtok town(0.44). Pielou’s Evenness index indicated that species were evenly distributed in all the sites exceptGangtok town (0.63). Bray-Curtis index revealed the highest species similarity between Ranipool andTadong (0.82). The present study gives elementary information about the species diversity of mosquitoesin the artificial breeding sites of Gangtok. The presence of potent disease vectors like Culex and Aedesshows the vulnerability of this region for the outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases in the near future asGangtok is a famous tourist destination.