Plebotomine Vectors of Human Disease.

An extensive collection of Phlebotomine from Guatemala and Hondiuras was studied in 1984. A paper describing one new species was completed others will treat new country records and additional new species. In Costa Rica, a highly anthropophilic and undescribed verrucarum group species was discovered in a coffee growing region where cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic other recently-collected sand flies from that country L. olmeca complex and from Panama were identified. The only female of L. ovallesi also in the verrucarum group captured at Ft. Sherman by WRAIR investigators and dissected. had promastigotes in the hindgut. A hamster was inoculated with these parasites which may or may not prove to be Leishmania. An identification key to the sand flies of Tres Bracos, Brazil, a musocutaneous leichmaniasis endemic site currently being studied by investigators at USAMRU-Brasilia, was completed. Two other papers dealing with biosystematics of South American Phlebotominae Surinam and Bolvia were also completed. An up-to-date summary of American sand flies, covering their medical importance, taxonomy, biology and other information, was written for general medical entomologists and is included in this report. Additional phlebotomines from Tanzania, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela were slide-mounted and added to the reference collection. Studies were begun to assess the ability of a USA sand fly species to maintain and transmit visceral leishmaniasis.