COMPARISON OF SAMPLING ANOPHELINE MOSQUITOS BY LIGHT-TRAP AND HUMAN-BAIT COLLECTIONS INDOORS AT BAGAMOYO, TANZANIA

The mosquito sampling efficiency of CDC miniature light-traps, relativ e to night-biting collections, was evaluated indoors at two sites in c oastal Tanzania. We found that the total number of anophelines capture d overnight by light-traps (hung beside a bednet in use) was 1.23 time s the number of anophelines captured by human-bait collections. This r elationship was not affected significantly by changes in the mosquito density, order of trapping method, date of sampling, or number of hous ehold occupants, Malaria sporozoite rates were twice as high among mos quitoes captured by light-trap as compared to those captured by night- biting collection. This was attributed to the tendency of light-traps to capture a larger proportion of gravid mosquitoes, which also had hi gh sporozoite rates. The differences in sporozoites rates according to abdominal stage indicates that unfed mosquitoes captured by light-tra ps may define more precisely the human-biting activity and sporozoite rates as seen by night-biting collections. Our study shows that light- traps, when used in combination with night-biting collections, can be an effective and sensitive means for measuring human-biting activity a nd the sporozoite rate.