Description of evandromyia spelunca, a new phlebotomine species of the cortelezzii complex, from a cave in Minas Gerais State, Brazil (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae)

Abstract

BackgroundThe cave fauna of the Brazil is poorly documented, and among the insects those live or frequent caves and their adjacent environments phlebotomine sand flies call for special attention because several species are vectors of pathogens among vertebrates hosts. A new species of sand fly from Minas Gerais is described based in females and males collected in a cave of the municipality of Lassance.ResultsThe morphological characters of the new species permit to include in the Evandromyia genus, cortelezzii complex. This complex consists of three species: Evandromyia corumbaensis (Galati, Nunes, Oshiro & Rego, 1989), Evandromyia cortelezzii (Brethes, 1923) and Evandromyia sallesi (Galvao & Coutinho, 1940).ConclusionsThe new species can be separate from the others of the cortelezzii complex through morphological characters of the male terminalia and female spermathecae.

Lutzomyia diamantinensis sp. nov., a new phlebotomine species (Diptera: Psychodidae) from a quartzite cave in Diamantina, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…According to the classification proposed by Young and Duncan (1994) (Galati, Fonseca & Marassá 2007) and Lutzomyia spelunca (Carvalho, Brazil, Sanguinette & Andrade-Filho 2011) (Galati et al 1995, 2007, Santos et al 2001, Carvalho et al 2011.…”

“…Sandflies are constantly found among the insects that live in or visit the caves or their adjacent environments and new species of this group have been described from these ecotypes (Alves et al 2008, Carvalho et al 2010, 2011. In Brazil, studies on the phlebotomine fauna in caves are very scarce.…”

Diversity and ecology of the macro-invertebrate fauna (Nemata and Arthropoda) of Kartchner Caverns, Cochise County, Arizona, United States of America

“…Sand flies are rather common in caves in the tropics, where they occur in association with bats and other mammals, typically rodents. Many species are important vectors of tropical diseases among vertebrate hosts including bacterial diseases, arboviruses and protozoan parasites (including leishmaniasis) (Carvalho et al 2011).…”

Argentinian phlebotomine fauna, new records of Phlebotominae (Diptera: Psychodidae) for the country and the province of Chaco

“…sallesi and Ev. spelunca constitute the Cortelezzii complex, in which the females can hardly be differentiated and males are distinguished by morphological characters often difficult to observe, thus leading to misidentifications (Carvalho et al 2011). Based on these observations, it is emphasized that the Cortelezzii complex (so far only consisting in Argentina of Ev.…”