New records of Anopheles ( Diptera : Culicidae ) in Puerto Carreño , Vichada , Colombia

Malaria is endemic in Vichada department in the Orinoquia region of Colombia. Reports of species in the genus Anopheles Meigen 1818, responsible for transmission of Plasmodium spp. parasites leading to malaria cases, should result in strengthened entomological surveillance and a clearer focus on the most effective vector control strategies. Here we present new records of Anopheles (Anopheles) shannoni Davis, 1931 and A. (A.) costai & forattini for Vichada department, Colombia. Additionally, we have new records of A. (Nyssorhynchus) triannulatus Neiva & Pinto, 1922, and A. (A.) mattogrossensis Lutz & Neiva, 1911 for Puerto Carreño, the capital of Vichada department.

Colombia and Brazil together are responsible for the highest number of malaria cases in South America (WHO 2013).Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles Meigen, 1818.The main malaria vectors in Colombia are Anopheles darlingi Root, 1926, A. albimanus Wiedemann, 1920, and A. nuneztovari Gabaldón, 1940(Montoya-Lerma et al. 2011).Nevertheless Colombia reports secondary vectors and other Anopheles species involved in the transmission of malaria locally or regionally (Brochero and Quiñones 2008).Because one of the main malaria control strategies is vector control, reports of anopheline species can provide associated bionomic and ecological data, improve focal entomological surveillance and more clearly define and help to evaluate local control activities.
The department of Vichada is located in the Orinoquia region of Colombia where all municipalities have geographical and ecological conditions that are appropriate for endemic malaria transmission (Chaparro et al. 2013;Padilla et al. 2011).Entomological studies were carried out for eight months in 2009 and five months in 2012 in urban and periurban Puerto Carreño (06°11′16″ N, 062°28′23″ W), the capital of Vichada department, located at the confluence of the Orinoco and Meta rivers and along the border of Venezuela (Figure 1).As a result of identification of field specimens, we present two new records of Anopheles mosquitoes for Vichada department and five for Puerto Carreño municipality.
Adult mosquitoes collections were conducted during three consecutive nights in a house where malaria cases were previously reported, using a human landing catch (HLC) method indoors and outdoors from 18:00 to 06:00 h, by a team of four collectors (WHO 1975).The HLC protocol was approved by the New York State Department of Health Institutional Review Board.Breeding sites for anophelines were inspected during 2009 using 500 mL ladles every 5 m, for a total of 50 dips per breeding site.Adult females were collected and entomological series were obtained from immature forms identified using the taxonomic keys of Faran and Linthicum (1981), González and Carrejo (2009) and Rubio-Palis (2000).Specimens were deposited in the Museo de Entomología, Universidad del Valle, Valle del Cauca, Colombia.
New specimen records were collected in 2012; these correspond to adult female mosquitoes captured by HLC (Tables 1 and 2 A. triannulatus Neiva & Pinto, 1922, A. mattogrossensis Lutz & Neiva, 1911and A. peryassui Dyar & Knab, 1908 are new record for Puerto Carreño. Anopheles shannoni is a member of Neotropical Arribalzagia Series (Reid and Knight 1961) described from specimens collected in Belém, Pará, Brazil.Distribution has been reported to include Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Peru, Suriname (Wilkerson et al. 1997) and Vaupés department, Colombia (González and Carrejo 2007).Although this species has been observed to be zoophilic, commonly collected in animal shelters or collected inside the jungle (Wilkerson et al. 1997), in Puerto Carreño the specimen was collected outside dwellings using HLC between 17:30 -19:00 hours.Interestingly, even though A. shanonni has been associated with A. darlingi Root in several larval habitats (Wilkerson et al. 1997), in Puerto Carreño it has not previously been recorded despite A. darlingi being the most abundant local species.
Anopheles costai Fonseca & Silva Ramos, 1939 and A. forattinii Wilkerson & Sallum, 1999   A. costai has a wider geographical distribution than A. forattini, having been reported in twenty departments, whereas A. forattini only has been reported in Meta and Vaupés (González and Carrejo 2009).Diagnostic characters based on morphology are only supported for eggs, pupa and male genitalia (Sallum and Flores 2004;Sallum et al. 1999;Wilkerson and Sallum 1999).Therefore, we are reporting the adult specimen we collected as A. costai & forattini.These species are sympatric in Colombia and Venezuela (Sallum et al. 1999;Wilkerson and Sallum 1999;Moreno and Rubio-Palis 2003); Vichada shares a frontier with Venezuela.It is important to collect additional specimens to obtain series or isofamilies (Estrada et al. 2003) to determine whether one or both species are present in eastern Colombia.
Anopheles mattogrossensis, A. peryassui and A. triannulatus are reported for Puerto Carreño, the capital of Vichada department.Anopheles mattogrossensis is distributed in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Trinidad, Guiana, and Venezuela (Forattini 1962).It is usually sylvatic, but also opportunistic, because it feeds on humans even when animals are nearby (Brochero et al. 2006).Because this species has been reported naturally infected with Plasmodium vivax (De Arruda et al. 1986;Tadei et al. 1998), and in Colombia its distribution across departments east of the Eastern Cordillera includes Vichada where malaria is endemic (González and Carrejo 2009), A. mattogrossensis should be reported during routine entomological surveillance.
Anopheles triannulatus is a species complex (Rosa-Freitas et al. 1998), and individual cryptic species differ in their roles in Plasmodium transmission (Silva-Do-Nascimento et al. 2006).Although A. triannulatus is often opportunistic, depending on host availability and abundance (De Arruda et al. 1986;Rubio-Palis 2000), it has been incriminated as a vector in Peru and Brazil (Aramburu-Guarda et al. 1999;Galardo et al. 2007).In Colombia, A. triannulatus was found naturally infected with Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax (Rosero et al. 2013); its local epidemiological importance has not been ascertained.In Puerto Carreño, A. triannulatus was caught during four of the five months sampled (June to September) between 17:30 and 21:30 hr.
The geographical position of Puerto Carreño, Vichada, is strategic because it shares a border with western Venezuela, where malaria is endemic, and is part of the Guiana Shield where biodiversity is high (Funk et al. 1999).The present study not only provides information for entomological surveillance of malaria but also contributes to the biodiversity of Anopheles mosquitoes in Puerto Carreño, Vichada, Orinoco, Colombia.
are in the subgenus Anopheles Meigen Arribalzagia Series and have been misidentified as A.

Table 1 .
Absolute abundance of monthly collections of several species of Anopheles captured indoors and outdoors in 2009 and 2012 from Puerto Carreño, Vichada, Orinoquia, Colombia.Abbreviations: I = indoor; O = outdoor.

Table 2 .
Neighborhoods, geographic coordinates, altitude and abundance of five species of Anopheles newly reported from Puerto Carreño, Vichada, Colombia.