The Distribution and Larval Habitat Characteristics of Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Rasht County (Guitan Province, Iran)

In order to study mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) fauna, an investigation on their adult and larval identification and larval habitat characteristics was carried out in Rasht County (Guilan Province, north of Iran) from July 1997 to October 1998. Five general and eleven species at adult and larval stages were collected and identified as follow:Anopheles maculipennis s.l., An. hyrcanus, An. pseudopictus, Aedes geniculatus, Ae. vexans, Coquillettidia richiardii, Culex mimeticus, Cx. pipiens, Cx. theileri, Cx. tritaeniorhyncbus and Culiseta subochrea.In this investigation, 568 adult specimens and 1126 larvae in the third and fourth stage were collected during 16 times of collection from 35 larval habitats consisted of 8 artificial and 27 natural larval habitats. 44% of the total larvae were collected from artificial larval habitats and 56% of them from natural ones. In this paper, the larval habitat characteristics and distribution of each species in Rasht County have been discussed.