Susceptibility of Phlebotomus papatasi Scopoli (Diptera: Psychodidae) larvae to the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschinkoff) Sorokin (Ma79) (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) was evaluated at two different temperatures. The ability of the fungus to reinfect healthy sand flies was followed up for approximately 20 wk and the effect of in vivo repassage on the enhancement of its v...

The midgut microbial community in insect vectors of disease is crucial for an effective immune response against infection with various human and animal pathogens. Depending on the aspects of their development, insects can acquire microbes present in soil, water, and plants. Sand flies are major vectors of leishmaniasis, and shown to harbor a wide variety of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacte...

Phlebotomine sand flies transmit Leishmania, phlebo-viruses and Bartonella to humans. A prominent gap in our knowledge of sand fly biology remains the ecology of their immature stages. Sand flies, unlike mosquitoes do not breed in water and only small numbers of larvae have been recovered from diverse habitats that provide stable temperatures, high humidity and decaying organic matter. We descr...

Australian beach sand is a productive habitat for lower brachyceran fly larvae but often overlooked by collectors. We collected two species of tabanid larvae from coastal beach sand in southern New South Wales in August 2013. Both species belong to the Dasybasis macrophthalma species-group of Mackerras (1959), one a new species, and the other D. exulans (Erichson, 1842). We describe both new im...

Phlebotomine sand flies are vectors of Leishmania that are acquired by the female sand fly during blood feeding on an infected mammal. Leishmania parasites develop exclusively in the gut lumen during their residence in the insect before transmission to a suitable host during the next blood feed. Female phlebotomine sand flies are blood feeding insects but their life style of visiting plants as ...

background: laboratory bred sand flies are essential for the study of different biological phenomena including the transmis­sion dynamics of leishmania . the aim of the study was to determine the suitable situation for colonization and main­tenance of iranian strain of phlebotomus papatasi at laboratory conditions from an endemic focus of cutaneous leishmani­asis due to leishmania major . metho...

leishmaniases are a group of sand fly-borne diseases caused by protozoan parasites from species of leishmania genus. these diseases are reported in about 100 countries with a prevalence of 12 million people infected and incidence of 2 million people per year, putting approximately 350 million people at risk of the infections. leishmaniases are endemic and are considered as important public heal...

Last-instar larvae of the western cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis indifferens, were subjected to Beauveria bassiana GHA incorporated into sterile sand and non-sterile orchard soil. Mycosis in the pupal stage was observed in >20% of buried R. indifferens pupae and >80% of larvae entering sand treated with either of two B. bassiana isolates. When pre-pupal larvae burrowed into conidium-treated non-s...

BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease caused by two known vector-borne parasite species (Leishmania donovani, L. infantum), transmitted to man by phlebotomine sand flies (species: Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia), resulting in ≈50,000 human fatalities annually, ≈67% occurring on the Indian subcontinent. Indoor residual spraying is the current method of sand fly control in India, but alt...