Trapping blood-feeding mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in the first lethal canine dirofilariasis site in Szeged, Hungary

Abstract – Dirofilariasis caused by Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy, 1856) is one of the most important mosquito-transmitted filarioid infections in the Carpathian Basin and many parts of Europe. It can lead to lethal hearth infection in dogs and can be the source of serious diagnostic problems in humans. In August 2014 an exploratory mosquito collecting was performed for blood-fed mosquitoes in the site of the fi rst known lethal canine dirofi lariasis, Szeged. The trapped mosquito materialshowed 95% dominance of Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758. The potential vectors of Dirofi laria immitis, Aedes vexans (Meigen, 1830) and Anopheles maculipennis (Meigen, 1818) mosquitoes were also present in the collected material. Ochlerotatus dorsalis (Meigen, 1830), a species associated with the lowland sodium-rich waters was also trapped. With 9 figures and 1 table