[Anopheles species in the municipality of Pinheiro (Maranhão), endemic area of malaria].

The Anophelae species of the municipal district of Pinheiro, Maranhão State, Brazil, were studied, considering their variety, relative abundance, seasonal fluctuation, preference by the peri and intra domiciles as well as the hours of hematophagism. The females were captured using human bait, on a monthly basis from May/1998 to April/1999, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. A total of 1,321 specimens of 10 species were captured, all belonging to the subgenus Nyssorhynchus. The most frequent species were A. argyritarsis (62%), A. darlingi (21.7%), A. albitarsis (4.5%), A. galvaoi (4.0%), A. triannulatus (3.1%) and A. evansae (2.8%). The species A. nuneztovari, A. braziliensis, A. rondoni and A. strodei together represented 1.9%. The anophelines occurred all year round, with no significant difference in the number of specimens captured between the rainy (51.7%) and dry season (48.3%). The frequency of the females in the peridomicile was significantly higher (p < 0.01) (82%), than in the intradomicile (18%), preferring to suck blood at dusk and in the first hours of the night.