Disappearance of malaria vector Anopheles sundaicus from Chilika Lake areaof Orissa State in India

Malaria has declined around Chilika Lake (85 degrees 20' E, 19 degrees 40' N) in Orissa State, India, from hyperendemicity in the 1930s to hypoendemic ity during recent decades. Six decades ago, 21 spp. of Anopheles mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) were recorded from this area, including the well know n Indian malaria vectors An. culicifacies Giles, An. fluviatilis James, An. maculatus Theobald, An. stephensi Liston and An. sundaicus (Rodenwaldt), t he last formerly regarded as the main vector locally. Surveys of Chilika ar ea during 1995-96 found 8 spp. of culicine plus 14 spp. of anopheline mosqu itoes, the latter comprising An. subpictus Grassi sensu lato, An. hyrcanus (Pallas) s.l., An. vagus Donitz, An. annularis van der Wulp s.l., An. culic ifacies Giles s.l., An. aconitus Donitz, An. varuna Iyengar, An. barbirostr is van der Wulp s.l., An. philippinensis Ludlow, An. ramsayi Covell, An. je yporiensis James, An. pallidus Theobald, An. tessellatus Theobald and An. k arwari James in decreasing order of abundance. Among indoor-resting female mosquitoes, the anthropophilic index was 4-7% and some species (An. culicif acies, An. subpictus, An. vagus) tended to enter houses for resting after b lood-feeding outside. Females of potentially infective age (three-parous) w ere obtained for An. culicifacies (11%) and An. annularis (< 2%), the more abundant established vector in this coastal area, but not for small samples of An. subpictus and An. vagus. Anophelines reported previously but not fo und in our survey were An. fluviatilis, An. jamesii Theobald, A. maculatus, An. splendidus Koidzumi, An. stephensi, An. theobaldi Giles and the former main vector An. sundaicus.