Larvivorous Behaviour of Channa Gachua on Filaria Vector - A Biological Control Measure

Abstract

Mosquitoes are known to transit many diseases like malaria, filarial, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever and dengue. In India alone approximately 40 million people suffer from mosquito borne diseases annually. Insecticides play a major role in vector control programmes and continue to be a major component for integrated vector management. But due to the health hazards associated with the use of chemical insecticides new biological control measures are being tried in the last few years. Use of predatory fishes is one of the major components of biological vector control so as to minimize vector borne diseases. The present paper is an attempt to present the findings of a study on predatory behaviour of locally available edible fish Channa gachua on Culex quinquefasciatus a known vector for Wouchereria bancrofti Maximum predation was found to 190 larvae per day. It was observed that fish prefer second instar larvae.

Keywords

• Channa gaehua
• Culex
• quinque fasciatus
• vector