Characteristics of resting habitats of adult Phlebotomus papatasi in Neot Hakikar, an oasis south of the Dead Sea

Abstract

Knowledge about diurnal resting sites of sand flies is scanty and often anecdotal. In this study, we explored a part natural -part agricultural oasis in Neot Hakikar, Israel, looking for sand fly resting sites. To achieve this, we developed a new type of emergence trap. Sixteen types of microhabitats were examined and in seven of these, we also investigated the rodent burrows. We found that Phlebotomus papatasi showed clear preferences for resting sites characterized by vegetation cover, type of vegetation, and the presence of a mulch layer. In habitats with bare soil and little shade, few or no resting sand flies were found outside rodent burrows. Apart from the trunks of date trees, most resting P. papatasi were found in disturbed habitats, especially in large piles of organic waste and in a plowed field. Though catches from rodent burrow exits were always higher than from the nearby ground, it is safe to assume that the few burrows in this vast oasis do not play an important role for breeding and resting of P. papatasi. It also appears that disturbing the natural environment further increases the already considerable sand fly population. Journal of Vector Ecology 36 (Supplement 1): S179-S186. 2011.

Diversity, ecology, and seasonality of sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) of the Jenin District (Palestinian Territories)

“…Our results are similar to previous findings (Müller et al 2011a), with highest numbers in July to September. Similar results were obtained for P. syriacus, P. papatasi, and P. perfiliewi similar (Müller et al 2011b). All these fluctuations are related to temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity changes over the breeding season for the sand flies.…”

“…Also, this fly prefers disturbed habitats as resting sites. In the present study, most of the trapped P. papatasi were from indoors, suggesting that they prefer houses for resting (Müller et al 2011b). In our study, P. papatasi was the most abundant Phlebotomus trapped indoors, with much fewer P. tobbi and P. sergenti.…”

“…Our findings are consistent with Haddad et al (2003) where this species was captured inside houses and barns. It was demonstrated that P. papatasi resting sites depend on vegetation cover, type of vegetation, and the presence of a mulch layer, and were absent in bare soil and little shade (Müller et al 2011b). Also, this fly prefers disturbed habitats as resting sites.…”

“…The sand flies of Palestine were studied from the Jordan Valley (Müller et al 2011a and2011b), Jerusalem Mountains (Orshan et al 2010, Moncaz et al 2012, the north (Svobodova et al 2006), and Jenin area (Sawalha et al 2003, Depaquit andLe´ger, 2004). Regionally, the sand flies of neighboring countries were identified in Egypt (Lane 1986), Jordan (Lane et al 1988, Kamhawi et al 1995, Kanani et al 2015, Lebanon (Haddad et al 2003), and Saudi Arabia (Lewis and Buttiker 1982).…”

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

“…In this study, we only sampled emerging sand flies from potential resting and breeding sites with a recently designed emergence trap (Muller et al 2010). Emergence traps provide data about population density from the observed productivity of breeding sites expressed as adults/area/time (Southwoods 1966, Feliciangeli 2004).…”