Morphological Identification of Malaria Vectors within Anopheles species at Hadejia and Jahun

Abstract

This study was carried out between May and October, 2011 to morphologically identify Anopheles species in parts of Jigawa State. Using Anopheles characteristics as described by Gilles and Coetzee (1987) using Zeiss light microscope at x 20. A total of 3027 Anopheles were collected and identified. 3027 (78.40%) were collected from Hadejia Local Government Area while 834 (21.60%) were collected from Jahun Local Government Area. Using Anopheles characters of Gilles and Coetzee (1987) under zeiss light microscope, 2605 (67.47%) were Anopheles gambiae s.l., 907 (23.49%) were Anopheles funestus and 349 (09.04%) were Anopheles maculipalpis. Hadejia Local Government Area had the higher number of Anopheles identified. An. 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: Morphological, malaria, vectors, Anopheles, species.