Natural breeding places of Phlebotominae in Chaco province, Argentina: preliminary studies

PARRAS MA; ROSA JR; SZELAG EA; SALOMON OD

Kusadasi

Simposio; 7th International Symposium on Phlebotomine Sand flies; 2011

Studies to identify the natural breeding places of Phlebotominae were conducted during 2010 in the phytogeographic regions of Chaco, Argentina, in areas with antecedents of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis transmission: Parque Provincial Pampa del Indio (26°02'S, 59º56'W) - cross-sectional study ? in summer (January), and humid Chaco: cities of Resistencia (27°26'S, 58º55'W), Margarita Belén (27°16'S, 59º00'W) and Colonia Benitez (27°17'S, 58º56'W) - longitudinal study ? from fall to spring (May to September). Soil samples were obtained from floors of galleries and external walls of homes, pens, chicken coops and kennels in peridomicile, and from the base and hollows of trees and exposed roots in the forest. A total of 127 samples were taken: Pampa del Indio: 15 (forest only), Resistencia: 37, Margarita Belén, 36, Colonia Benítez: 39. The samples collected were kept at 24 ± 1ºC and 80% relative humidity and observed daily for 60 days looking for adult emergence. Subsequently, the samples were processed by flotation solution (saturated NaCl) and observed under stereomicroscope for larvae, pupae and / or exuviae. A female of Lutzomyia migonei was obtained from a sample from Pampa del Indio (Dry Chaco region) from the base of a Bromeliaceae, and a pupal exuviae of Phlebotominae was obtained from a winter sample from Resistencia (Wet Chaco region) from a kennel.