Seasonal and spatial changes of sand fly species in a canyon in the Carmel Mountains

Abstract

Altogether, 4,008 sand flies belonging to seven species were collected over a period of one year in the microhabitats of a single canyon in the Carmel Mountain ridge. The three most abundant were P. arabicus, P. tobbi, and P. simici. Our results suggest that none of the seven sand fly species was indifferent to the heterogeneity of the microenvironment inside the canyon. Apart from the rare P. perfiliewi, which was only collected on the upper part of the south-facing slope, and P. tobbi, which clustered on the north-facing slope, the bulk of the other sand flies were caught on the bottom of the canyon. During the summer, the catches of all sand fly species increased to reach their maximum number in August and September. In April and May, there was lush vegetation and humidity, so species were distributed evenly throughout their habitats. With the onset of summer dryness, the sand flies concentrated in the humid habitats. The rate of concentration was essentially higher for males than for females, and this variation may result from differences in the behavior of the two sexes. During our study, none of the 2,318 dissected female sand flies were positive for Leishmania promastigotes. Journal of Vector Ecology 36 (Supplement 1): S118-S127. 2011.

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

“…Phlebotomus sergenti flies were collected from May to November. 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).…”

“…Phlebotomus tobbi was not collected during the cold months of the year in the Carmel Mountains but observed from July to September (Müller et al 2011a). In this study, P. tobbi was observed from March to November, one peak towards the end of the summer in September and August.…”

“…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).…”

Temporal Dynamics and Impact of Climate Factors on the Incidence of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Central Tunisia

“…Based on the biologic and epidemiologic reasons [43], time lags for temperature and humidity were fixed with appropriate data transformation in order to have a valid epidemiologic interpretation of statistical results. Besides, it is not recommended to vary the time lags for temperature, humidity and rainfall as many candidate models will be generated and increase the risk to reject wrongly the null hypothesis which corresponds to the type II error.…”

Environmental Aspects of Zoonotic Diseases

“…The results showed a record of 2,979 phlebotominae before the power station installation and 912 afterwards, revealing a reduction in this arthropod population. Again, in the Brazilian case in which moisture is much more elevated, there are no highly distinctive humid regions as in the Tunisian case (dam versus desert) or in Israel (Müller, et al, 2011). In this special case, two speculations can be brought up: 1) deforestation caused by dam construction could take away the moist, organic, dark environment required by sand fly to rest and breed and 2) the tumultuous water movement around the dam does not favor their life cycle, including egg deposition.…”