Comparative study on the human landing catch and light trap methods is verification of mosquito vector indices in an endemic area

Abstract

As part of a longitudinal study on the epidemiology of filariasis, this study was carried out to test a hypothesis that three light traps catch about the same number of mosquitoes as a team of two Human Landing Catch collectors. The comparison was done to analyze possible differences between the two techniques in the species composition, population density, and the age of the mosquitoes caught. The spectrum of species composition was basically the same. The population density of the mosquito species was comparable between the two methods. The percentage of parous females obtained from human landing catch was higher than that from the light trap catch for the species caught. However, the differences were not statistically significant (X2 _test; p> 0.05, for all tests). A scatter plot of the log-transformed number of female mosquitoes caught by human landing catch and log-transformed number of females caught by the light traps, with a fitted regression line, and a double log-transformed scale, showed a strong correlation between the catching methods. The Spearman’s rho Correlation Coefficient was statistically significant (0.94; p> 0.001); and the relationship between the two methods was independent of the size of the measurements for the mosquito species. It is therefore concluded that entomological results on mosquitoes obtained using three light traps are comparable to same results obtained using a team of two Human Landing Catch collectors.

Key words: Mosquito, filariasis, population density, collection techniques