Temporal distribution of, and effect of anthropic modifications on, phlebotomine populations in the Chaco Bioregion, Argentina.

Migonemyia migonei is the predominant species in the dry ecoregion and Nyssomyia neivai in the humid region, although co-dominance in humid highly modified areas could be observed. Vector abundance seems to be modulated by environmental anthropization, as the abundance and predominance of Ny. neiviai and Mg. migonei increased in highly modified areas. In Humid Chaco, the risk of human-vector contact would be present throughout the year, being particularly high in spring/summer, and in Dry Chaco, the risk would be restricted to temperate and humid months.

Leishmania infantum DNA detected in phlebotomine species from Puerto Iguazú City, Misiones province, Argentina.

In Puerto Iguazú City, Argentina, human and canine Visceral Leishmaniasis cases have been recorded since the year 2010, with Leishmania infantum as the etiological agent and Lutzomyia longipalpis as its main vector. In the present study, polymerase chain reaction and sequencing were used to detect L. infantum DNA in 3.9% of the female sandflies captured in Puerto Iguazú City. This is the first report of L. infantum DNA detection in Micropygomyia quinquefer, and the second one in Lu. longipalpis and Nyssomyia whitmani for Argentina. Although the detection of Leishmania DNA itself is not enough to determine a Phlebotomine species as a vector, these results are significant in setting the direction of further investigations of vectorial competence and capacity, necessary to define the roles of different sandflies species as specific or permissive vectors in the transmission VL cycle.

Description of Pintomyia salomoni sp. n., a new phlebotomine species from northwest Argentina.

A new species of phlebotomine sandfly is described and illustrated using male and female specimens collected in the provinces of Jujuy and Tucumán, Argentina. Both male and female morphological characters allow the inclusion of the new species within the Pintomyia genus, Pifanomyia subgenus, serrana series (Diptera: Psychodidae). The species was denominated as Pintomyia salomoni n. sp., and is closely related to Pintomyia (Pifanomyia) torresi and Pintomyia (Piffanomyia) boliviana.

On the Synonyms of Psathyromyia (Psathyromyia) shannoni (Dyar, 1929) and Pa. bigeniculata (Floch & Abonnenc, 1941) and the Resuscitation of Pa. pifanoi (Ortiz, 1972) With the Description of Its Female (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae).

Psathyromyia shannoni until recently presented several taxa: Phlebotomus limai, Ph. bigeniculatus, Ph. pifanoi, and Ph. microcephalus as its junior synonyms. In a previous study, the two former synonyms were resurrected and here a revision based on morphological characters of the taxonomic status of Ph. microcephalus and Ph. pifanoi is presented. Psathyromyia pifanoistat. rev.; comb. n. is resurrected from the synonymy of Pa. shannoni and its female is described. Phlebotomus microcephalus is removed from the synonymy of Pa. shannoni and proposed as a new synonym of Pa. bigeniculata. Lutzomyia cuzquenasyn. n., occurring in the Amazon region, is designated as a junior synonym of Pa. pifanoi. The geographical distributions of Pa. shannoni, Pa. bigeniculata, and Pa. pifanoi in the Americas are presented.

Distribution of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a primary forest-crop interface, Salta, Argentina.

Disordered urbanization and deforestation are the main activities proposed as causal factors of re-emergence of American cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania braziliensis. The purpose of this work was to investigate, in the hyperendemic area of Argentina, the distribution of Phlebotomine sand flies at the modified primary vegetation-crop interface, as one of the potential sites where the effects of changing landscape on sand fly populations may be manifested. Twenty samplings were made between June 2004 and August 2005. The traps to catch sand flies were set on two consecutive nights every month (except in 5 mo, where it became every 15 d). The relationship between sand fly abundance and meteorological and landscape variables was analyzed using non-metric multidimensional scaling and Kendall's correlation coefficients. Lutzomyia neivai (Pinto) was the most abundant species, followed by Lutzomyia migonei (França), Lutzomyia cortelezzii (Brèthes), Lutzomyia shannoni (Dyar), and Lutzomyia punctigeniculata (Floch and Abonnenc). Traps located close to modified areas collected the greatest numbers of sand flies, whereas traps located in the least modified area (adjacent to the primary vegetation) collected the fewest. There was a strong negative correlation between the abundance of sand flies and precipitation. This study shows that even small modifications in the landscape led to an increase in sand fly abundance, mainly Lu. neivai, a Leishmania braziliensis vector. This underscores the need for recommendations about the risk of American cutaneous leishmaniasis before any environmental intervention is done in an endemic area, as well as for the monitoring of sand fly population dynamics at the site of intervention, before, during, and after the process.

The life cycle of Stephanoprora aylacostoma n.sp. (Digenea: Echinostomatidae), parasite of the threatened snail Aylacostoma chloroticum (Prosobranchia, Thiaridae), in Argentina.

A new species, Stephanoprora aylacostoma is described and its life cycle was resolved experimentally. The prosobranch snail Aylacostoma chloroticum Hylton Scott, collected in the Yacyretá dam, Province of Misiones, Argentina, was found naturally infected with large-tailed cercariae possessing a prepharyngeal body and corpuscles in the excretory system but lacking collar spines. Metacercariae, which encysted on the gills of experimentally infected fishes Cnesterodon decemmaculatus (Jenyns) and Poecilia reticulata (Peters) (Poecilidae), developed collar spines after 10 days. Tetragonopterid fishes Moenckhausia dichroura (Kner), Astyanax erythropterus (Holmberg) and Hyphesobrycon serpae (Durbin in Eigenmann) were found infected naturally. Sexually mature adults were recovered from domestic chicks at day 7 post-exposure. Eggs shed in chick faeces developed to miracidia within 13-15 days; sporocysts were found on the gills of snails. The new species differs from other species of the genus in its larger eggs, in the smaller, slender body and smaller collar spines of the adult and in the morphological and biological features of the larval stages.