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All issues Volume 18 / No 4 (November 2011) Parasite, 18 4 (2011) 337-339 Full HTML
Open Access
Issue
Parasite
Volume 18, Number 4, November 2011
Page(s) 337 - 339
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2011184337
Published online 15 November 2011

© PRINCEPS Editions, Paris, 2011, transferred to Société Française de Parasitologie

Licence Creative CommonsThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Twenty-two phlebotomine sand fly species (Diptera: Psychodidae) have been reported in Algeria, 12 belonging to the Phlebotomus genus and 10 to the Sergentomyia genus (Belazzoug, 1991). Those included in the Phlebotomus genus are of medical importance since they comprise recognized or suspected vectors of leishmaniasis and/or Phlebovirus. We report here for the first time (i) the presence of Phlebotomus mascittii in Algeria, and (ii) the presence of the female Phlebotomus chadlii in the same area.

The entomological investigation was conducted in Larbaa Nath Iraten (4° 12’ 05’’ E, 36° 38’ 10’’ N at 916 m altitude), in a humid bioclimatic zone, in Kabylian area (Izri et al., 2008). Sand flies collection was performed during summer 2009 using CDC miniature light traps.

A total of 883 sand flies (703 males and 180 females) were captured and morphologically identified during 16 night-CDC traps (55 sand flies/night-CDC traps). Ten distinct species were identified: one species belonging to the Sergentomyia genus (S. minuta) and nine species to the Phlebotomus genus including one female of P. mascittii and two females of P. chadlii (Table 1).

Table 1.

Sand fly species diversity in LNI, Kabylian area during summer 2009).

P. mascittii was described in Italy (Roma), then in other countries in the north shore of the Mediterranean basin, from Spain to Turkey (Seccombe et al., 1993). In countries of northern Europe, it was reported in Germany and Switzerland (Naucke et al., 2000). However, P. mascittii has always been found in low density. In France, P. mascittii species was observed in several departments including in the north, such as Alsace (Callot, 1950). In southern regions, it was usually associated with the main recognized vectors of visceral leishmaniasis, P. ariasi and P. perniciosus (Rioux et al., 1984; Pesson et al., 1985). It was described as an anthropophylic and aggressive species (Pesson et al., 1985). P. mascittii was suspected to be a vector of Mediterranean leishmaniasis, because it was frequently collected from human and dog leishmaniasis in endemic foci (Pesson et al., 1985). However, its vector role has not been confirmed so far. Hence, we noticed for the first time the presence of P. mascittii female (Fig. 1) in the southern part of Mediterranean. This female was collected from animal shelter localized in house basement.

thumbnail Fig. 1.

Spermathecae of Phlebotomus (Transphlebotomus) mascitti (photonic microscope × 200).

P. chadlii was described from Northwest Tunisia (El Kef) among male sand fly specimens. However, the female remained unrecognized until 2006 when it was described in specimens trapped in El Kef, Tunisia (Chamkhi et al., 2006). In Algeria, P. chadlii is widely spread in humid, sub humid and arid bioclimatic zones (Dedet et al., 1984). For unknown reasons, in Algeria, only male specimens have been reported so far (Rioux et al., 1970; Dedet et al., 1984). In our survey, three specimens of P. chadlii were identified, two females (Fig. 2) and one male, all of them cached in animal shelters. The bioclimatic distribution of P. chadlii coincides with that of P. ariasi (Dedet et al., 1985), the proven vectors of L. infantum and of Sand fly Fever Phleboviruses (SFV) in the Mediterranean basin (Izri et al., 2008). Using the mitochondrial cyt b gene, Franco et al. (2010) reported that P. chadlii might be a sister group of the European and the Moroccan P. ariasi species. However, to date there is no confirmation neither for their vector role, nor for their trophic preferences. The two females collected in this study were not engorged, thus precluding blood meal analysis. We strongly support the idea of further studies (i) to elucidate the relationship between P. chadlii and P. ariasi, (ii) to identify their trophic preferences, and (iii) to study the relationship host/leishmaniasis parasite.

thumbnail Fig. 2.

Spermathecae of Phlebotomus (Larroussius) chadlii (photonic microscope × 200).

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Doctor R. Benane, veterinarian in Larbaa Nath Irathen (LNI) region, for their helpful and availability to realize this study.

References

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All Tables

Table 1.

Sand fly species diversity in LNI, Kabylian area during summer 2009).

In the text

All Figures

thumbnail Fig. 1.

Spermathecae of Phlebotomus (Transphlebotomus) mascitti (photonic microscope × 200).
In the text
thumbnail Fig. 2.

Spermathecae of Phlebotomus (Larroussius) chadlii (photonic microscope × 200).
In the text

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