Malaria is still a primary health problem in Colombia. The locality of Tierradentro is situated in the municipality of Montelíbano, Córdoba, in the northwest of Colombia, and has one of the highest annual parasite index of malaria nationwide. However, the vectors involved in malaria transmission in this locality have not yet been identified. In this study, the local anthropophilic
Anopheles
composition and natural infectivity with
Plasmodium
were investigated. In August 2009, 927 female
Anopheles mosquitoes were collected in eight localities using the human landing catch method and identified based on their morphology. Cryptic species were determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism-internal transcribed spacer (ITS)2 molecular analysis. Eight species [
Anopheles nuneztovari s.l.
(92.8%),
Anopheles darlingi
(5.1%),
Anopheles triannulatus s.l.
(1.8%),
Anopheles pseudopunctipennis s.l.
(0.2%),
Anopheles punctimacula s.l.
(0.2%),
Anopheles apicimacula
(0.1%),
Anopheles albimanus
(0.1%) and
Anopheles rangeli
(0.1%)] were identified and species identity was confirmed by ITS2 sequencing. This is the first report of
An. albimanus,
An. rangeli and
An. apicimacula in Tierradentro. Natural infectivity with
Plasmodium was determined by ELISA. None of the mosquitoes was infectious for
Plasmodium.
An. nuneztovari s.l. was the predominant species and is considered the primary malaria vector;
An. darlingi and
An. triannulatus s.l. could serve as secondary vectors.
