Sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) In The Oriental Chaco Phytogeographical Region-Argentina: Seasonal And Habitat Distribution

SZELAG EA; ROSA JR; SALOMON OD; ANDRADE FILHO JD; PEÇANHA BRAZIL R

Lima, Perú

Simposio; 6th International Symposium On Phlebotomine Sandflies; 2008

Chaco province is divided in two phytogeographical regions, Wet Chaco and Dry Chaco, both with current Tegumentary Leishmaniasis (TL) cases. The aim of this work was to identify the sandflies of the Dry región, almost unknown, and to determine their seasonal and habitat distribution. Insects were collected in Misión Nueva Pompeya (24°55´S, 61°30´W) from November 2006 to December 2007 in Fortín Arenales (FA) and Los Pozos (LP), around houses with active LT cases. The captures were performed monthly one night/site with CDC light traps from 19.00 to 07.00h in domestic, peridomestic (animáis shelters) and wooded habitáis (>150m from domicile). In total 1,689 sandflies were captured, with a sex ratio male/female 2.02: 1. The seasonal distribution was: Spring: Lutzomyia migonei 80.1%, L cortelezzii complex 8.9%; Autumn: L peresi 2.5%, L. quinquefer 0.8%, L. neivai 0.2%, L. spp 7.3%; Summer: L. chacoensis 0.2%; while none sandfly was obtained during winter. L. spp was sent to the Centro de Referencia Nacional e Internacional para Flebotomíneos of the Instituto Rene Rachou/FIOCRUZ, Brazil, for further identification. There were not differences in diversity between sites. In FA more phlebotomine were collected in the woods (36.1%») than in the peridomestic (24.9%) or the domestic (23.1%) habitat. In LP there wasn´t differences between the domestic and woods captures (5.7% and 5.8%), but there are difference with the peridomestic trapping (4.3%). L. migonei was prevalent in all ecotones and seasons, followed by L cortelezzii complex. Based on the abundance and closeness to houses with cases these species could be suspected as TL vectors in the región