Species diversity and flagellate infections in the sand fly fauna near Porto Grande, State of Amapá, Brazil (Diptera: Psychodidae. Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae)

Forty-six species of Lutzomyia and one species of Brumptomyia were identified among 20,008 sand flies collected in central Amapá. L. squamiventris maripaensis, L. infraspinosa, L. umbratilis and L. ubiquitalis accounted for 66% of the specimens caught in light traps, and L. umbratilis was the commonest of the 16 species found on tree bases. Seven species of Lutzomyia including L. umbratilis were collected in a plantation of Caribbean pine. Sixty out of 511 female sand flies dissected were positive for flagellates. Among the sand flies from which Leishmania was isolated, promastigotes were observed in the salivary glands and foregut of 13 out of 21 females scored as having very heavy infections in the remainder of the gut, reinforcing the idea that salivary gland invasion may be part of the normal life cycle of Leishmania in nature. Salivary gland infections were detected in specimens of L. umbratilis, L. whitmani and L. spathotrichia. Parasites isolated from L. umbratilis, L. whitmani and also from one specimen of L. dendrophyla containing the remains of a bloodmeal, were compatible with Le. guyanensis by morphology and behaviour in hamsters

Lutzomyia adiketis sp. n. (Diptera: Phlebotomidae), a vector of Paleoleishmania neotropicum sp. n. (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) in Dominican amber

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Amber fossils can be used to trace the history of disease-vector associations because microorganisms are preserved "in situ" inside the alimentary tract and body cavity of blood-sucking insects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Lutzomyia adiketis </it>sp. n. (Phlebotomidae: Diptera) is described from Dominican amber as a vector of <it>Paleoleishmania neotropicum </it>sp. n. (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae). The fossil sand fly differs from all previously described extinct and extant members of the genus by the following combination of characters: Sc forked with the branches meeting the costa and radius veins; wing L/W value of 4.1; a δ value of 18; a ratio β/α value of 0.86, and the shape and size of the spatulate rods on the ninth sternite. The trypanosomatid is characterized by the structure of its promastigotes, amastigotes and paramastigotes and its transmission by an extinct species of sand fly.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Morphological characters show that the fossil sand fly is a new extinct species and that it is host to a digenetic species of trypanosomatid. This study provides the first fossil evidence that Neotropical sand flies were vectors of trypanosomatids in the mid-Tertiary (20–30 mya).</p