M. Killick-Kendrick

Protection of dogs from bites of phlebotomine sandflies by deltamethrin collars for control of canine leishmaniasis

Abstract. Dog collars made of PVC plastic impregnated with the pyrethroid insecticide deltamethrin at 40 mg/g were investigated for their protective efficacy against phlebotomine sandflies. Collared dogs were kept separately (two untreated control dogs lived together) in outdoor enclosures, each with a kennel, in the Cevennes, southern France. To measure sandfly mortality and anti‐feeding effects due to the deltamethrin‐impregnated collars worn continuously by the dogs for up to 8 months, each dog was periodically sedated and exposed for 2h to 150–200 laboratory‐reared Phlebotomus perniciosus females (plus c. 25 males) inside a net (1.2m square, 1.8 m high) indoors. After dogs were removed from the nets, allowed to recover and returned to their kennels, any dead sandflies were collected from inside the net and counted. Surviving flies were kept overnight, then scored according to whether they were still alive or dead, unfed or blood‐fed.

Anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kabul, Afghanistan: the low susceptibility of Phlebotomus papatasi to Leishmania tropica.

Females of a laboratory colony of Phlebotomus papatasi from Kabul were fed through a membrane on a high dose of amastigotes of Leishmania tropica from the same place. Less than one-third of the flies became infected and only 6% developed heavy infections of the stomodaeal valve. From these observations, and previous studies by other workers, it is concluded that P. papatasi probably plays little or no part in the transmission of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kabul. As in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the most likely vector in Afghanistan is P. sergenti.

Honeydew sugars in wild-caught Phlebotomus ariasi detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC)

Abstract. Phlebotomus ariasi Tonnoir sandflies were caught in light traps hung in oak trees and in a house in the Cévennes focus of leishmaniasis in the South of France. The flies were cryopreserved either immediately on removal from the traps, or after starvation for 6–7 days, or after 6–7 days starvation followed by exposure to oak infested with the aphid genera Lachnus or Thelaxes.

Honeydew of aphids as a source of sugar for Phlebotomus ariasi

Abstract. Wild‐caught Phlebotomus ariasi Tonnoir, starved until their sugar meals had been digested, were caged for 24 h with plants or plants infested with aphids and then tested for fructose, a constituent of plant sap. No evidence was found that the flies took sap directly from nine types of plants present in their habitat. About two‐thirds of flies caged with oak (Quercus ilex L.) infested with an aphid [Lachnus roboris (L.)] and about a fifth kept with leaves of the french bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) infested with an aphid took honeydew. Experiments with three other aphid species gave negative results. Of sandflies caught in an oak tree infested with aphids, half of the females and three‐quarters of the males contained fructose. Tests on females caught in a house and grouped according to state of engorgement showed that, having taken blood, the females stop taking sugar until the bloodmeal is completely digested. It is predicted that honeydews are important in the development of Leishmania infantum Nicolle in the gut of P.ariasi.

The laboratory colonization of Phlebotomus ariasi (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Les auteurs decrivent les methodes d’adaptation et d’entretien au laboratoire d’un elevage de Phlebotomus ariasi originaire des Cevennes. Le probleme de la faible fertilite a ete evite en offrant aux femelles un repas sanguin en presence des mâles dans une moustiquaire. Les larves en diapause ont ete conservees en parfaites conditions durant l’hiver a une temperature de 10° C. Ces methodes peuvent etre utiles pour d’autres especes reputees difficiles a elever.

Two populations of Phlebotomus ariasi in the Cévennes focus of leishmaniasis in the south of France revealed by analysis of cuticular hydrocarbons

ABSTRACT. Two distinct populations of Phlebotomus ariasi Tonnoir have been identified in the Cevennes focus of leishmaniasis in the south of France using gas‐liquid chromatography (GLC) of cuticular hydrocarbons extracted from individual dried female flies. Results were obtained after analysis of flies collected from CDC light traps from a domestic and a sylvatic site separated by a distance of 900 m. Flies were provided for GLC analysis as six blind samples. Using cluster and discriminant analysis techniques, five of the samples were shown to form two distinct groups, while a sixth was identified as a mixture.

Phlebotomine sandflies of Kenya (Diptera: Psychodidae). III. The identification and distribution of species of the subgenus Larroussius.

The six species of phlebotomine sandflies of the subgenus Larroussius recorded in Kenya are Phlebotomus aculeatus, P. elgonensis, P. guggisbergi, P. longipes, P. orientalis and P. pedifer. Five are proven vectors of leishmaniasis in that country or elsewhere. Males of all six can be identified by the morphology of the aedeagus or the number and position of the hairs on the inner surface of the coxite. Additional features separating some of the species are the sizes of the palpal and antennal segments. The females have usually been considered difficult or impossible to distinguish. A comparison of the base of the spermathecal ducts is made and it is shown that all six can be identified by this character alone. A map of Kenya is given, showing the presently known distribution of the six Larroussius species. Further surveys are necessary in parts of the country that have not been systematically surveyed.

Isoenzyme characterization of Leishmania from man, dog and sandflies in the Maltese islands

As a part of a general survey on leishmaniases and sandflies of the Maltese islands, 22 Leishmania stocks were isolated from human visceral (1) and cutaneous (1) cases, dogs (16) and sandflies (4). They were characterized by the analysis of 15 enzymes. The commonest Mediterranean L. infantum zymodeme, MON 1, was found to cause human and canine visceral leishmaniasis; L. infantum MON 78, which has so far been isolated only in Malta, was the agent of human cutaneous leishmaniasis. Both zymodemes were isolated from the same sandfly species, Phlebotomus perniciosus.

A new microsporidian parasite, Flabelliforma montana n.g., n.sp., infecting Phlebotomus ariasi (Diptera, Psychodidae) in France

Abstract Flabelliforma montana, a new microsporidian genus and species, is described from the sandfly Phlebotomus ariasi. The parasite was found in sandflies collected in the commune of Roquedur, Gard, France, and represents the first microsporidium recorded from Old World sandflies. Meronts lie in direct contact with the host cell cytoplasm and divide by binary fission or plasmotomy. Sporogonial plasmodia divide by multiple fission within a sporophorous vesicle, passing through a lobed fan-like stage before division into uninucleate sporoblasts. All stages have unpaired nuclei. Transmission is direct. Flabelliforma is one of nine genera of microsporidia with multisporous sporogony, all but one of which are currently considered to belong to one family, Pleistophoridae, but in reality are not closely related. The characters which differentiate Flabelliforma from the other multisporous genera are discussed and a key is provided for identification of the genera.

The armature in the genital atrium as a new taxonomic character distinguishing females of Phlebotomus papatasi and P. duboscqi (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Descriptions are given of armatures in the genital atria of females of the two morphologically similar sandfly species, Phlebotomus papatasi and P. duboscqi. The species are distinguishable by the size and shape of the armature, the grouping of the spines in the armature and the length and shape of the spines. These characters have been shown to separate females of other closely related species of phlebotomine sandflies.