Bacterial abundance in larval habitats of four species of Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) in Belize, Central America.

Numbers of free-living and attached bacteria were counted in surface waters from larval habitats of four species of Anopheles mosquitoes: Anopheles albimanus Wiedemann, An. darlingi Root, An. vestitipennis Dyar and Knab, and An. pseudopunctiopennis Theobald, using a direct count method and DAPI staining technique. Bacterial counts from larval habitats were compared to those from adjacent open water. Several additional variables such as total suspended solids (TSS), particulate organic carbon (POC), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were also recorded in order to establish possible relationships with bacterial characteristics. Our results showed that the waters from larval habitats were enriched with bacteria as well as POC and DOC compared to open water. The major component of all samples consisted of cocci, the proportion of rods was similar and there were significantly more attached rods in habitat samples than in open water samples. Anopheles vestitipennis habitats had the highest values of each of the categories of bacteria as well as of POC and DOC.