Biting rhythms of some anophelines in central Gujarat

A total of 41,552 anophelines comprising 16 species were collected during 70 all-night bovine-bait collection carried out in six villages of Kheda district, Gujarat. Anopheles subpictus, An. varuna, An. culicifacies, An. stephensi and An. vagus had unimodal biting rhythms. Most feeding occurred during the early night with occasional increase during pre-dawn/dawn hours. An. pallidus exhibited bimodal biting rhythm with two well-defined peaks. An. turkhudi, An. tessellatus, An. fluviatilis, An. aconitus, An. annularis; An. barbirostris and An. nigerrimus had multimodal biting rhythms or were arthymic. An. culicifacies, An. varuna, An. aconitus and An. tessellatus exhibited a marked seasonal shift in feeding activities with most biting occurring at dusk in colder months and late at night during warmer months.