Parity status and filarial infection in field-collected Armigeres kesseli ramalingam and Armigeres salbabatus coquillett from forested and urban areas in Malaysia

The ability of Armigeres to transmit diseases such as animal filariasis and lymphathic filariasis has been well documented in many parts of the world. The present study was to detect the presence of filarial worm and parity in Malaysian Armigeres in an urban area, Sungai Penchala, Kuala Lumpur and a forested area, Taman Alam, Selangor in Malaysia. Human Landing Catches (HLC) were conducted for 24 hours (0700–0700) during the study. A total of 898 Armigeres adults were dissected between November 2009 and May 2010. Investigation showed that 67.66% of Armigeres obtained from Sungai Penchala and 32.34% of Armigeres obtained from Taman Alam were parous. No filarial worm was detected in this study. However the potential for these mosquitoes to harbour pathogen is still high due to the high densities of parous mosquitoes obtained from the population.