Influence of rising water table on mosquitoes’ diversity and abundance in Niamey city, Niger

Abstract

To determine the influence of water table rising on mosquitoes’ ecology, we carried out an entomological monitoring, throughout 72 sampling locations in three different areas at Niamey city. Mosquitoes were collected using insecticides spray and light traps. Specimen were morphologically identified and, abundance and diversity parameters were estimated using PAST software. A total of 3,609 specimens were identified, belonging to four genera: Culex (69.74%), Anopheles (29.68%), Aedes and Mansonia (<1% each). Species richness varied from 3 to 5 and abundance was found high, around 45% in the flooded areas while it was four times lower in the non-flooded site (10.11%). ? diversity indexes indicated that flooded sites are markedly similar and homogeneous (?=0.11) and strongly associated with Anopheles and Culex abundance during rainy and cold seasons, respectively. These results suggested that water table rising and resulting waterholes could play a key role in increasing vector-borne diseases transmission.