Lutzomyia intermedia and Lutzomyia whitmani occur sympatrically in the district of Posse, municipality of Petrópolis, in the State of Rio de Janeiro (114 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro), where sand flies were captured weekly for three consecutive years in both the peridomicile and forest, in two first years from 18:00 to 22:00 h, using a Shannon trap and CDC light traps. The anthropophilic habit was assessed by recording the specimens that bit the human captors. Considering the different capture types and sites, the following species were identified: Brumptomyia brumpti, B. cardosoi, B. guimaraesi, Lutzomyia amarali, L. longipalpis, L. microps, L. costalimai, L. edwardsi, L. firmatoi, L. migonei, L. termitophila, L. tupynambai, L. fischeri, L. pessoai, L. lutziana, L. shannoni, L. barrettoi, L. intermedia, L. whitmani, L. lloydi, and L. minasensis. L. intermedia (38.3%) and L. whitmani (38.6%) predominated. L. intermedia predominated in the peridomicile, where it displayed more intense anthropophily, while L. whitmani displayed greater density in the banana plantations and forest, preferential sites for biting humans. Studies on seasonality showed that while L. intermedia displayed greater density in the hottest months of the year (December, January, and February), L. whitmani was abundant in the coolest months (June, July, and August), although both occurred throughout the year

Lutzomyia longipalpis s.l. occurs from Argentina to Mexico (Young & Duncan 1994) and because of its wide distribution there have been doubts expressed that this taxon is a single species. Mangabeira (1969) commented on morphological variation seen in males. He observed that specimens captured in the state of Pará, North Brazil, bore a single pair of pale tergal spots on abdominal segment IV (1S males) and those captured from the Northeastern state of Ceará (CE) showed an additional pair of spots on segment III (2S males). Mangabeira commented that the two forms were found in different ecological conditions and speculated that they might represent two species. The existence of a complex was confirmed by Ward et al. (1983Ward et al. ( , 1988 and Lanzaro et al. (1993) in crossing experiments, although the male spot phenotype turned out to be only useful as a morphological marker of different species in some localities such as Sobral, CE (see below) (reviewed in Bauzer et al. 2007).In Brazil, Lutzomyia longipalpis s. l. (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) is without any doubt the principal vector of American visceral leishmaniasis (AVL). It is present in nearly all of the foci of visceral leishmaniasis, is highly anthropophilic as well as readily feeding on dogs and foxes which act as reservoirs of Leishamania chagasi which are frequently found infected (reviewed in Lainson & Rangel 2005).Analysis of male copulatory courtship songs (Souza et al. 2002 and pheromones (Ward et al. 1988, Hamilton et al. 1996a,b, 2005 The best studied populations in Brazil, from an evolutionary point of view, are located in Jacobina (state of Bahía), Lapinha Cave in Lagoa Santa (state of Minas Gerais), Natal (state of Rio Grande do Norte) and Sobral (CE) (Bauzer et al. 2007). The first three localities represent different allopatric siblings (Bauzer et al. 2002b, Bottecchia et al. 2004, Watts et al. 2005) while in Sobral two species coexist in sympatry (Bauzer et al. 2002a, Maingon et al. 2003, Bottecchia et al. 2004. In the present study we compared the reproductive isolation among the three allopatric populations and between the Sobral sympatric siblings.Initially samples of the populations of Jacobina, Lapinha and Natal were obtained using CDC traps (4 to 9 traps in each locality). All males collected in Lapinha had a single pair of spots (1S) in segment IV and all males from Jacobina were 2S (two pairs in segments III and IV, with similar sizes). The majority of males from Natal had the intermediate phenotype, with the extra pair in segment III with less than 3/4 of the size of the spots in segment IV (see Ward et al. 1988). The population from Natal is highly polymorphic for the male spot phenotype but in this locality there is no evidence for the existence of sympatric sibling species (Mukhopadhyay et al. 1998, Bauzer et al. 2002b, Bottecchia et al. 2004, Watts et al. 2005. Eggs from 100 to 200 wild-caught females from each of the three localities were used to establish laboratory colonies following the methodologies 217 Reproductive isolation...

The municipality of Ilhéus, State of Bahia, has a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis where entomological studies were carried out to determine the sand fly species and their habits.

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The phlebotomine sand flies Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) intermedia (Lutz & Neiva) and Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) whitmani (Coutinho & Antunes) are important vectors of Leishmania (Vianna) braziliensis, the etiological agent of American cutaneous leishmaniasis. In some areas, both species occur in sympatry, and their relative roles as vectors in these areas are not clear. We studied the nocturnal activity and biting rhythms of both species in Posse, a locality in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Our results show differences between the activity patterns of Lu. intermedia and Lu. whitmani that might be epidemiologically important. Although the activity profiles vary between seasons and microhabitats (peridomestic versus forest), the two species show marked differences in their tendencies to bite humans in the early morning (0400-0600 hours), with Lu. whitmani showing higher feeding rates than Lu. intermedia.