Algae and plant flora of the mosquito breeding habitats in two urbanized areas of Cairo, Egypt

Kenawy, Mohamed A.; Ali, Adel F.; Ammar, Sherif E.; Abdel-Rahman, Hashim A.; Abdel-Hamid, Yousrya M.; Gad, Adel M.

doi:10.21608/eajbse.2014.14496

Algae and plant flora of the mosquito breeding habitats in two urbanized areas of Cairo, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Entomology, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11566

² Biology Department, School of Science and Engineering (SSE), American University (AUC), Cairo,

³ Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo

⁴ Research Institute of Medical Entomology, The General Organization for Institutes and Teaching Hospitals, Ministry of Health, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

10.21608/eajbse.2014.14496

Abstract

The present study was carried out in two urban
areas in Cairo Governorate namely El-Muqattam and Abu-Seir. For each locality, the breeding habitats were
monthly inspected (Nov. 2009 to Oct. 2010) for mosquito larvae. Along with
larval collection, samples of algal mats/ scum and of terrestrial
and aquatic plants surrounding and within the breeding habitats were collected. Thirteen algal taxa
belonging to 4 divisions: Cyanophyta (3), Bacillariophyta (7), Chlorophhyta (2)
and Xanthophyta (1) were identified in the two localities. Eighteen plant species of fifteen families
were collected of which, sixteen species were terrestrial and only two were
aquatic. Examining the dependence of the
reported mosquito species (Culex pipiens, Cx. perexiguus, Cx. pusillus, Ochlerotatus
caspius, Culiseta longiareolata and Anopheles multicolor) on
the occurrence of certain algal/aquatic
plant species revealed that all relations were insignificant (χ²=0.00
-2.22, d.f.=1, P>0.05) except the dependence of Cx. pipiens on the occurrence of the
unicellular green alga Cosmarium sp., and filamentous green algae of Oedogonium
sp. and Spirogyra sp. in Abu-Seir (χ²=5.99, d.f.
=1, P<0.05).

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