Seasonal dynamics of sand flies in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park: a tourist destination and endemic area for leishmaniasis.

Numerous sand fly species have been reported in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (LMNP) in Northeast Brazil, including important Leishmania vectors, making the park an endemic area for tegumentary and visceral leishmaniasis. We evaluated sand fly abundance monthly over 7 years, correlating it with environmental variables and monthly tourist numbers in LMNP. Sand fly species were observed throughout the year, with Lutzomyia longipalpis Lutz & Neiva and Nyssomyia whitmani Antunes and Coutinho (Diptera: Psychodidae) being the most abundant species, especially from April to June. In addition to seasonal abundance patterns, Lu. longipalpis showed increasing abundance throughout 2013 until April 2014, whereas Ny. whitmani exhibited a consistent increase throughout the study period. Redundancy analysis indicated that monthly sand fly abundances increased with humidity but decreased with mean temperature and wind speed. Ecotourists mainly visit the park from May to September when interdune lagoons are full, coinciding with high-frequency vector activity during the rainy months (May-June). Tourists also visit in January and February during school holidays, when the rains begin and sand fly abundance increases, and in July, when sand fly abundance decreases. To date, no instances of infected tourists have been recorded, likely because visits to LMNP occur during the day when sand flies are inactive. However, there is a potential risk of vector exposure if tourists engage in nighttime cultural visits to villages around the park, where leishmaniasis cases occur annually.

Comunidades de morcegos em hábitats de uma Mata Amazônica remanescente na Ilha de São Luís, Maranhão

There are few studies about bat communities in Brazil and none for the Maranhão state there is none. The present study aimed to analyze the bat community of the Bacanga State Park (PEB), São Luís - MA, and to contribute with bat data for the Maranhão state. The bats were sampled in four different habitats (capoeira forest, terra firme forest, riparian forest, and mangrove), using three mist nets from May to August 2004. Diversity and similarity were calculated, as well as the spatial niches width and overlap of the commonest species in PEB. Twenty four species of bats were recorded in PEB and the riparian habitat forest presented the highest diversity index. The low similarity found between mangrove and the remaining habitats seemed to identify two well-defined assemblages of bats in the sampled area, which is enforced by the spatial niche overlaps of the most commonness species.

Estudos com comunidades de morcegos são escassos no Brasil, não sendo encontrado nenhum no Maranhão. Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar a composição de espécies da comunidade de morcegos do Parque Estadual do Bacanga (PEB), São Luís - MA, além de contribuir para o levantamento da fauna de morcegos do estado. Os morcegos foram capturados com três redes neblina de maio a agosto de 2004 em quatro diferentes hábitats (mata de capoeira, mata de terra firme, mata de várzea e mangue). A diversidade e similaridade entre hábitats foram calculadas, bem como a amplitude e sobreposição dos nichos das espécies consideradas comuns na área. Foram registradas 24 espécies de morcegos, sendo a maior diversidade encontrada na mata de várzea. A baixa similaridade constatada entre o hábitat de mangue e os demais hábitats indica a existência de dois conjuntos de espécies de morcegos distintos, o que é reforçado pelas sobreposições de nicho espacial das espécies mais comuns.