Biodiversity of culicid mosquitoes in rural Neka township of Mazandaran province, northern Iran

This paper presents the results of a study on ecological parameters including diversity indices applied on populations of Culicidae mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from three rural areas (Darvishan, Chalmardi and Khairabad) of Neka township in Mazandaran province, northern Iran. Adult and larval stages of mosquitoes were systematically sampled to obtain data required for measuring diversity of mosquitoes in these areas. Alfa and beta indices were analyzed to compare mosquito diversity. A total of 5270 specimens belonging to four genera and 14 different species were collected and identified. Evaluation of dominance structure of species showed that culicid mosquitoes of Neka rangelands include one eudominant species, two dominant species, two subdominant species, two rare species and eight subrare species when Heydemann classification was used. Data analysis revealed a higher diversity of mosquitoes in Khairabad with a low degree of interspecific dominance, while Darvishan and Chalmardi recorded the lowest observed diversity and a high degree of interspecific dominance. The cluster analysis based on Jaccard's index indicated the relationship between the categories and indicates that Darvishan and Khairabad are the closest categories in their specific composition.