Phlebotomine sandfly species in Paraguay and their infection with Leishmania

Nine species of sandflies, Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) whitmani (Antunes and Countinho), Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) intermedia (Lutz and Neiva), Lutzomyia (Psathyromyia) shannoni (Dyar), Lutzomyia migonei (Franca), Lutzomyia (Pintomyia) fischeri (Pinto), Lutzomyia (Pintomyia) pessoai (Countinho and Barretto), Lutzomyia cortelezzii (Brethes), Lutzomyia walkeri (Newstead) and Lutzomyia (Trichopygomyia) longispinus (Mangabeira), were caught, by human bait and Shannon trap, in four areas of Paraguay hyper-endemic for human leishmaniasis. Lutzomyia whitmani and L. intermedia were the predominant species. All the species collected were found to be anthropophilic. Hindgut infections with leishmanial promastigotes were observed in only one (0.38%) of the 266 L. whitmani dissected. No L. intermedia were found infected, giving an overall infection rate of one (0.16%) of 615 flies dissected. The results indicate a very low rate of natural infection in endemic areas of Paraguay.