title: Culicidae (Diptera) community structure, spatial and temporal distribution in three environments of the province of Chaco, Argentina.
abstract: The aim of this work was to study the composition of the Culicidae community in three environments with different degrees of anthropic disturbance in the province of Chaco. The nonparametric richness estimator ACE was calculated to measure the completeness of the sampling in each environment, and the diversity of each environment (α-diversity) were estimated. The composition, abundance and uniformity of species from the different environments were compared by means of range-species curves. β-diversity was measured as species complementarity, which allowed us to know the degree of dissimilarity among the environments. The synanthropic index was estimated, identifying urban environment (synanthropic) species, eusynanthropic species, and wild species. The influence of climatic factors (mean temperature, relative humidity and rainfall) on the monthly and annual variations of the identified mosquito species was analysed using multilevel Poisson models with over-dispersion. The wild environment showed higher diversity and the semi-urban environment higher species richness. Despite having lower S and abundance, the urban environment showed greater diversity than semi-urban environment, although it also showed lower completeness, which means S could increase. Anthropogenic disturbance can lead to the elimination and/or modification or substitution of habitats, with the subsequent loss of richness in the more sensitive species of Culicidae fauna, although the conditions are also favourable for the settling of opportunistic and exotic species well-adjusted to disturbed environments. Most of the species abundances were positively influenced by the analysed climatic variables. The study area showed a rich Culicidae fauna of public health significance, with a risk of pathogen transmission, suggesting the need of further studies and the febrile and entomological surveillance.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Entomología, Instituto de Medicina Regional, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Avda. Las Heras 727, Resistencia 3500, Argentina. Electronic address: marinastein@yahoo.com.ar.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Bioestadística, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Lamadrid 875, CP 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mirta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Bioestadística, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Lamadrid 875, CP 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina.
authors.forename: Liliana María
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Galindo
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Herpetología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Av. Libertad 5470, Corrientes 3400, Argentina.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Etchepare
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Entomología, Instituto de Medicina Regional, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Avda. Las Heras 727, Resistencia 3500, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juana Alicia
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Willener
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas (IIByT-CONICET), Centro de Investigaciones Entomológicas de Córdoba, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Vélez Sarsfield 1611, Córdoba 5016, Argentina.
authors.forename: Walter Ricardo
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Almirón
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D044822:Biodiversity; D009033:Culicidae / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D012621:Seasons; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
keywords: Argentina; Culicidae; Diversity; Subtropical region