Characteristics of resting and breeding habitats of adult sand flies in the Judean Desert

Abstract

Recently, in several areas of the Middle East, a sharp increase of cutaneous leishmaniasis was observed in suburbs of larger towns including Jerusalem. In some of these areas, poor housing conditions and unsuitable waste management was suspected to provide ideal conditions for sand fly breeding, but hard data on diurnal resting sites and breeding habitats of most sand fly species are scant. In this study, we chose 16 sites on both slopes and the bottom of a natural valley in the Judean Desert to conduct a survey of sand fly distribution with emergence traps. Altogether, 1,261 sand flies, 52% Phlebotomus syriacus, 22% P. sergenti, 14% P. papatasi and 12% P. tobbi were caught. About two thirds of the flies caught were resting, while the other third emerged from breeding sites. All four species showed clear preferences for resting and breeding sites, but generally, most sand flies were breeding in the more humid habitats, namely the bottom of the valley, the adjacent north facing slope, terraces on the north facing slope, and caves. The vegetation cover also appeared to be important for resting habitats; on the bottom of the valley more than six times as many sand flies were collected in areas covered by dense vegetation than in areas with low vegetation cover. P. sergenti seemed also to better tolerate the drier habitats, which might explain the abundance of this species in the arid Judean Desert. Journal of Vector Ecology 36 (Supplement 1): S195-S205. 2011.

Breeding Sites of Phlebotomus sergenti, the Sand Fly Vector of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in the Judean Desert

“…Our efforts failed to capture any sand flies emerging from soil in valley floors or slopes with or without vegetation or stones. These differing findings may be due to the fact that Muller et al [27] were dealing primarily with Ph tobbi and Ph major while our study and that of Orshan et al [21] focused on Ph. sergenti .…”

“…Interestingly, other studies performed in the Judean Desert suggested sand fly breeding and resting occurs primarily in valley floors covered with vegetation [27]. Our efforts failed to capture any sand flies emerging from soil in valley floors or slopes with or without vegetation or stones.…”

“…4). If we assume that sand flies captured during the first night were mostly resting adults leaving their diurnal shelters to forage, the majority of flies captured during subsequent nights (2–8) can be considered as emerging from breeding sites [27].…”

“…Those exiting during the first night were considered either resting or emerging sand flies. On the other hand, those flies captured 24 hours and longer after the cave (or other habitat) had been covered, were considered more likely to be flies emerging from breeding sites [27].…”

Localization of kala-azar in the endemic region of Bihar, India based on land use/land cover assessment at different scales

“…For example, the transmission of leishmaniasis formerly occurred over wide areas from where it has now been eliminated by agricultural development and insecticide treatment. It is known that in relation to rice cultivation, mechanization is likely to be associated with increased flooding and scant vector breeding opportunities (Hunter, 2003;Müller et al, 2011). Moreover, agricultural practices can cause the local extirpation of reservoir hosts, such as the destruction of gerbil habitats (Moškovskij and Duhanina, 1971).…”