Morphological Identification of Malaria Vectors within Anopheles 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.