Dry season refugia for anopheline larvae and mapping of the seasonal distribution in mosquito larval habitats in Kandi,northeastern Benin

Background: the dynamics of mosquito populations depends on availability of suitable surface water for oviposition. it is well known that suitable management of mosquito larval habitats in the sub-saharan countries,particularly during droughts,could help to suppress vector densities and malaria transmission. we conducted a field survey to investigate the spatial and seasonal distribution of mosquito larval habitats and identify drought-refugia for anopheline larvae. methods. a gis approach was used to identify,geo-reference and follow up longitudinally from may 2012 to may 2013,all mosquito breeding sites in two rural sites (yondarou and thui),one urban (kossarou),and one peri-urban (pèdè) site at kandi,a municipality in northeastern benin. in kandi,droughts are excessive with no rain for nearly six months and a lot of sunshine. a comprehensive record of mosquito larval habitats was conducted periodically in all sites for the identification of drought-refugia of anopheline larval stages. with geospatialisation data,seasonal larval distribution maps were generated for each study site with the software arcgis version 10.2. results: overall,187 mosquito breeding sites were identified of which 29.95% were recorded during drought. in rural,peri-urban and urban sites,most of the drought-refugia of anopheline larvae were domestic in nature (61.54%). moreover,in rural settings,anopheline larvae were also sampled in cisterns and wells (25% of larval habitats sampled during drought in yondarou and 20% in thui). the mapping showed a significant decrease in the spatial distribution of mosquito larval habitats in rural,peri-urban and urban sites during drought,except in yondarou (rural) where the aridity did not seem to influence the distribution of larval habitats. conclusion: our data showed that the main drought-refugia of anopheline larvae were of a domestic nature as well as wells and cisterns. a suitable management of mosquito larvae in sub-saharan countries,particularly during droughts,should target such larval habitats for a meaningful impact on the dynamics of mosquito populations and malaria transmission. © 2014 govoetchan et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.