Diagnostic Importance of Female External Genital Structure of Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera:Psychodidae) as Observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy

Lutzomyia adiketis sp. n. (Diptera: Phlebotomidae), a vector of Paleoleishmania neotropicum sp. n. (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) in Dominican amber

“…It is unfortunate that characters of the female external genitalia are so little used in the systematics of the group, even though their diagnostic importance was demonstrated by Mukhopadhyay and Ghosh [ 16 ]. The size and shape of the cerci, lobes on the 8 th sternite and spatulate rods on the ninth sternite could serve as diagnostic characters.…”