Abstract
Mosquitoes have been ranked among the deadliest entities of world being vectors of serious viral and protozoan/ parasitic illnesses among humans and animals. Pakistan is having diverse environmental combinations, and being frontline victim of global climatic changes, has rich biodiversity including the mosquitoes that has continuously been changed. Current study was planned to investigate mosquito diversity of Dera Ghazi Khan District of Pakistan. Mosquito larvae were collected from open water bodies, ponds, and seepage water with the help of standard 250 ml dipper. Then in the lab, the specimens were boiled in hot water for few seconds to fix protein / enzyme activity and preserved in 75% ethyl alcohol in small glass vials. The preserved samples were identified to species level with the help of available taxonomic keys (Rattanarithikul 1982; Maslov et al. 1989; Rattanarithikul et al. 2005, 2006; Darsie and Pradhan 1990). Based on the microscopic examination of morphological characteristics, the current study reported one Genus i.e., “Udaya (Thurman, 1954)” and four species namely Anopheles indefinitus (Ludlow, 1904), Culiseta bergrothi (Edwards, 1921), Culex alis Theobald, 1903, and Udaya argyrurus (Edwards, 1934) for the first time from Pakistan. The said species are potential vectors of many serious viral and protozoan diseases and can be a cause of concern in future.
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24 October 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00886-4
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Acknowledgements
This research is greatly benefited from the help of Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman Khan for providing necessary guidance and arrangements of larvae collection. Gratitude is expressed for his continuous support and fascinating ideas. This work was not possible without the assistants who helped in detection of potential breeding sites and collection of the larvae. Special thanks are paid to Miss. Dil Aawez in helping the identification and handling the specimen.
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Saba, S., Naeem-Ullah, U., Saeed, S. et al. First record of one Genus and four Species of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from Pakistan. Int J Trop Insect Sci 42, 3649–3657 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00857-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-022-00857-9