Flebótomos da Amazônia Central do Brasil. I. Resultados obtidos das capturas feitas com iscas humana e eqüina (Diptera, Psychodidae)

Abstract

Human bait and horse bait captures of phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) were conducted in a tropical forest in the Central Amazon of Brazil. All sandflies that bite man, with the exception of Lutzomyia punctigeniculata (Floch & Abonnenc) also attack horses and some other species attack horses but do not bite man. We found, therefore, that a horse may be substituted for a man when seeking the anthropophilic species of the region. The species most frequently attacking man was L. maripaensis (Floch & Abonnenc) and this was also the species that most readily attacked a horse. The sandfly most frequently caught attacking man at 15 m above the forest floor was L. anduzei (Floch & Abonnenc). A total of 8563 female sandflies were caught, during an 8 month period, representing at least 21 species or groups. Of these, 17 species were anthropophilic.