Ecology of sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a restricted focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Northern Venezuela: III. Seasonal fluctuation

Abstract

A one year-long study (March 1979-March 1980) was carried out at San Esteban, an endemic focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Northern Venezuela, with the aim of observing the seasonal fluctuation of the local phlebotomine sandflies species. The influence of climatic factors (temperature, relative humidity and rainfall) on population dynamics was analyzed in three collecting sites--a house, a peridomestic area and a sylvatic region. Among anthropophilic species, L. panamensis behaved as a wetseason species, the mean minimum relative humidity being the critical factor influencing the total number of individuals. When the population density of this fly decreased, it was successfully replaced by L. ovallesi, a dry-season species. On the other hand, seasonal variations of L. gomezi were more strongly affected by the temperature.

Infecção natural de Lutzomyia longipalpis por Leishmania sp. em Teresina, Piauí, Brasil

“…Nenhum deles, entretanto, avaliou a associação entre condições climáticas e a infecção de flebotomíneos 1,13 .…”

Flebotomíneos da floresta de terra firme da Amazônia Peruana (Diptera: Psychodidae)

“…As coletas com armadilha tipo Shannon foram realizadas segundo a técnica descrita por Perez et al (1987), enquanto que as coletas com isca humana seguiram a técnica descrita por Feliciangeli (1987 No dia seguinte à coleta do ma terial entomológico, os flebotomíneos eram triados e guardados a seco (Maroli et al, 1995) para posterior montagem e identificação.' Para confirmar a identificação dos espécimes coletados foram utilizadas a literatura de Young (1979), as descrições e redescrições do material pesquisado.…”

Leishmaniasis sand fly vector density reduction is less marked in destitute housing after insecticide thermal fogging

“…In general, these studies have shown that insecticide application at the household level seems to be the most effective SF control method [7], because it can suppress both SF abundance [7] and CL transmission over short [36] and long term [37] time scales. However, a key insight from the few long-term studies on SF population dynamics is that vector abundance is extremely sensitive to environmental changes, with different species having a distinctive sensitivity to particular meteorological components [12,15,17]. Nevertheless, most insecticide control trials have ignored the importance of weather variability when evaluating the efficacy of insecticides on SF abundance [20-35].…”