Present status of Phlebotomus in certain areas of Greece

A survey of the Phlebotomus populations of the city of Athens and its suburbs, of the islands of the Saronikos gulf, of the island of Euboea, of southern Peloponnesus, and of Crete was carried out in the summer of 1957. Sandflies were found to have become practically extinct in all areas where systematic spraying with residual insecticides had been performed since the vector control programme was started in 1946. On the other hand, they were still plentiful in villages which had not been included in the programme, and fairly plentiful in unsprayed towns and cities. P. papatasii was the only species encountered in Athens, and by far the predominating species in most other places. Susceptibility tests on P. papatasii showed an LC(50) for DDT of 0.28% at Athens and 0.75% at Chania in crete; the LC(50) for dieldrin was approximately 0.2%.