Diversity, distribution and abundance of Sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Parana State, Southern Brazil

Due to the spread of the Visceral leishmaniasis in Brazilian territory, this research was undertaken with the objective to identify the sandfly fauna and aspects of the species' behavior in forest and anthropic environments in Parana State, Brazil. ne sandfly captures were sporadically carried out in 37 municipalities of the Parana state, during the period from March 2004 to November 2005. Each municipality was once visited, when Falcao traps were installed during three consecutive nights in forested fragments and anthropic environments; captures with Shannon traps installed in forests and edge of forests, inspection of walls and electric aspiration in domiciles and forested areas were sporadically undertaken. The data analysis was based on estimates of frequency and abundance of the species, by five native landscapes. A total of 3 8,662 specimens belonging to 23 species were captured. Nyssomyia neivai (Pinto) (75.6%), Ny. whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho) (10.1%), Migonemyia migonei (Fran a) (7.8%), Expapillata firmatoi (Barreto et al.) (2.1%) and Pintomyia fischeri (Pinto) (1.6%) together constituted 97.2% of the phlebotomine colleteted. High frequencies of sand flies were found in forests, henhouses, pigpens and domiciles. The three most frequent species have been implicated in transmission of tegumentary leishmaniasis in Parana and in the Brazilian Southeastern and Southern Regions. Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva), the visceral leishmaniasis vector was no found, however Lutzomyia gaminariai (Cordero et al.), female of which is similar to that of Lu. longaipalpis was captured, raising the need to investigate its behavior, including as regard to the vectorial competence.