Vegetation cover and microspatial distribution of sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in an endemic locality for cutaneous leishmaniasis in Northern Argentina

MARIANA CHANAMPA; RAQUEL M. GLEISER; CARLOS HOYOS; GRISELDA N. COPA; CAROLINA MANGUDO; JULIO NASSER; JOSÉ F. GIL

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Lugar: Lanham; Año: 2018

0022-2585

Thesand fly fauna in Hipólito Yrigoyen, Argentina, a locality where cutaneousleishmaniasis (CL) cases occur, was surveyed with zones of higher abundance ofsand flies correlated to vegetation cover estimated through NormalizedDifference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Sand flies were collected with 10 CDC trapsduring 6 nights, from December 2009 to January 2010. A map was built ofexpected sand flies abundance in which levels of NDVI were categorized. A totalof  1,392 Phlebotominae (Diptera:Psychodidae) specimens were collected, comprised mainly of the followingspecies: Nyssomyia neivai (Pinto1926), Mygonemyia migonei (França1920), species of the cortelezzii complex (Brèthes 1923), Evandromyia sallesi (Galvão & Coutinho 1940) and Psathyromyia shannoni (Dyar 1929).Positive correlations were found between the abundance of sand flies and theNDVI (p<0.05) for buffer areas of <150m radii. Plant cover should betaken into account to prioritize surveillance and control areas within theprogram of sand flies control in northern Argentina.