A pictorial field guide for the rapid identification of sandflies (DIPTERA: PSYCHODIDAE), commonly encountered in Pará state, Brazil.

Abstract

Ward personal communications 1983 & 1984).A key used to separate five anthropophillic sandflies by Biagi (1966) phlebotomine fauna must first be studied in a given area; and a field guide for the common species may be produced which speeds the work rate and allows identification of the sandflies without mounting or maceration. Smaller samples may be examined in greater detail to check the validity of the identification made with the field guide.We stress that this is not an alternative to the accepted characters in use at pre sent in the few available keys, but rather an aid to field work in a gi ven region. Where for example, one already knows Ps. davisi to be present in a given work area the pictorial guide immediately reminds the field worker of its appearance. Again a relatively untrained dissector may give his opinion that a sandfly is Ps. davisi, and this can then be confirmed by the person of the dissecting team who is examining the spermathecae and guts.In addition, for teaching purposes, this guide provides a useful starting point, orintroducting to the sandflies of Para. The small and medium 5th palpal segment groups function well, fortunately, as most of the anthropophi11ic flies belong to these groups.Even so difficulties may arise in separating Ps. amazonensis from Ps. claustrei and the Ward et al., 1985), where note must be madeofthepresence of one two abdominal, white spots on males.Ali the characters used are constant, but caution should be exercised when dealing with Lu. longipalpis, as this species exhibits awide morphological range. A sma11, white form encountered in Câmara, Marajó Island and Santarém, Pari, is fortunately uncommon in our samples (1 = 1000). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A partnership that worked: the Wellcome Trust and the Instituto Evandro Chagas and beyond

“…wellcomei/complexus 28 . With Dr Habib he made contributions to phlebotomine taxonomy that included describing new species and the publication of field guide of identifying local phlebotomines 73 .…”