Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, southern India, in relation to visceral leishmaniasis

A morphologically distinct Phlebotomus argentipes population from active cutaneous leishmaniasis foci in central Sri Lanka

“…The examination of larger number of flies is required to unambiguously establish whether the population described herein shows greater overall similarity to P. glaucus than to other members of the P. argentipes species complex. P. argentipes s.s., the known vector for VL in India, was found in sympatry with P. glaucus, although the latter has not been reported to act as a vector of VL to date (Ilango et al 1994, Ilango 2010. The recent report of argentipes siblings in sympatry at three study sites in northern Sri Lanka (Gajapathy et al 2011) and our own results further highlight the importance of investigating the presence of other P. argentipes s.l.…”

“…species complex in India: P. argentipes Annandale and Brunetti s.s., Phlebotomus annandalei Sinton and Phlebotomus glaucus Mitra & Roy. P. argentipes s.s., the known vector for VL in India, was found in sympatry with P. glaucus, although the latter has not been reported to act as a vector of VL and P. annandalei was mainly found in areas that are non-endemic for VL in India, including the Tamil Nadu area in southern India (Ilango et al 1994, Ilango 2010.…”

“…More recently, a study showed the existence of P. argentipes morphospecies B (Surendran et al 2005) on Delft Island (9º28" 9º34"N, 79º37" 79º48"E, 35 km from the northwestern coast of mainland Sri Lanka and 37 km from south India). This morphospecies was re-described as P. annandalei by Ilango (2010) and characterised as a "short ascoid form" based on the ratio between the length of the sensilla chaeticum, e.g., the ascoid (Lewis & Killick-Kendrick 1973, Ilango et al 1994, 2000, Lane & Rahman 1980 on antennal flagellomere A2 and the length of flagellomere A2 < 0.5 (n = 41). For P. argentipes morphospecies A, a "long ascoid form" that was re-assessed by the same author (Ilango 2010) and determined to be P. glaucus, the ratio described above is > 0.5 and this morphospecies was caught in the Pelawatta area (n = 4) in the district of Moneragala of mainland southeastern Sri Lanka.…”

Emergence periodicity of Phlebotomus argentipes annandale and brunetti (Diptera: psychodidae): A laboratory study

“…It is expected that further investigations on morphometry, cuticular hydrocarbon, isoenzyme, may confi rm the variations as studied in Lutzomyia umbratilis in Brazil (Justiniano et al, 2004). Morphological variations in the populations of P. argentipes have been reported from different parts of India (Dinesh et al, 2005 A,B;Illango et al, 1994;Illango, 2000).…”

Fecundity and life table of different morphotypes of Phlebotomus argentipes (Diptera: Psychodidae)

“…P. argentipes is both anthropophilic and zoophilic in nature (Dinesh et al 2000;Hati et al 1981). Some morphological variations have been reported in the populations of P. argentipes like morphospecies type A and B in South India (Illango et al 1994). The North Indian populations have also shown abnormality in ascoids (Dinesh et al 2005a).…”