Morphological Identification of Malaria Vectors within <i>Anopheles</i> Species in Parts of Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out between May and October, 2010 to morphologically identify Anopheles species in parts of Kano State. A total of 2374 Anopheles were collected and identified. 1782 (75.07%) were collected from Nassarawa Local Government Area while 592 (24.93%) were collected from Tarauni Local Government Area. Using Anopheles characters of Gilles and Coetzee (1987) under zeiss light microscope, 587 (24.75%) were Anopheles funestus, 1535 (64. 65%) were gambiae s.l. and 252 (10.60%) were An. maculipalpis. Nasssarawa Local Government had the higher of Anopheles identified. Anopheles gambiae s.l. ranked the highest among other species. Further molecular identification of sub-species complex of An. gambiae s.l and An. funestus is strongly recommended in the area.

Keywords: Identification, malaria, vectors, anopheles, species.