Mosquito species occurrence in association with landscape composition in green urban areas

Abstract Aedes aegypti prefers densely populated habitats, but has been shown to explore less anthropogenic environments. We investigated composition of the abundance of mosquitoes in forested areas and assessed relationships between species occurrences and different types of land use and land cover at three spatial scales (100m, 500m and 1000m). Mosquitoes were collected from October 2012 to March 2013 using oviposition traps. We collected 4,179 mosquitoes in total including at least 10 species. Aedes albopictus and Limatus durhami were eudominant species, representing 90% of all collected individuals. We found intraspecific differences in response to land use and land cover, and species response patterns were similar at all spatial scales. Ae. albopictus relative abundance was associated with urbanized areas, while Li. durhami, Haemagogus leucocelaenus and Toxorhynchites sp., abundances were associated with native forest. Aedes aegypti were found in five of the eight areas studied, including in an Atlantic forest fragment at a considerable distance from the forest edge (370 m). Aedes aegypti occurrence was not influenced by type of land use or land cover