Marking-release-recapture methods for determining the size of the natural population of Anopheles albitarsis l.s (Diptera:Culicidae)

In order to evaluate the size of the Anopheles albitarsis s.l. population in the Ribeira Valley region of the south-eastern S. Paulo State, Brazil, marking-release-recapture experiments were carried out on the Experimental Farm in Pariquera-Açu county where an artificial irrigation system for the cultivation of rice has been installed. The experiments aimed at determining the vectorial capacity of this species. During the summer (January, February and March), three marking-release-recapture experiments with field and laboratory reared populations were conducted to evaluate the population size. Simultaneous human bait collections were also carried out to estimate the human biting rate. The population sizes of the three experiments were estimated to be 64,560, 50,503 and 22,684 mosquitoes. The bite/man/night rate varied from 41.5 to 524,5. The results indicated high mosquito density in the summer which allow one to infer that, even though the survival rate is low, the number of remaining females is large enough to outlive the parasite's extrinsic developmental period.