Medical and Veterinary Entomology (2007) 21, 270–277 © 2007 The Authors 270 Journal compilation © 2007 The Royal Entomological Society Introduction Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli) is the main vector of Leishmania major Yakimoff & Schokhor, one of the causative agents of Old World zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. This sandfly is found in houses, animal shelters, caves and rodent burrows. Phlebotomus papatasi has a wide geographical distribution ranging from Morocco (Guernaoui et al., 2005), Saudi Arabia (Killick-Kendrick et al., 1985), Iran (Yaghoobi-Ershadi et al., 2005), former U.S.S.R. countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan) (Perfil ’ev, 1966), to Palestine and Israel (Schlein et al., 1982; Sawalha et al., 2003). The geographical distribution of P. papatasi includes differ- ent climatic and ecological discontinuities. Insecticide usage varies greatly and may set different selection patterns that are favourable to local adaptation among geographically distant P. papatasi populations and associated with patterns of population divergence. Despite this large and diverse geographical range, little is known about the population structure of P. papatasi and its phylogenetic relationship is unclear. Morphometric and isoenzyme analysis of different P. papatasi populations have shown the level of heterozygosity to be very low (Esseghir et al., 1997; Belen et al., 2004). These studies did not reveal clear differentiation between widely separated P. papatasi Genetic structure of Mediterranean populations of the sandfly Phlebotomus papatasi by mitochondrial cytochrome b haplotype analysis O. HAMARSHEH 1,2 , W. PRESBER 1 , Z. ABDEEN 2 , S. SAWALHA 2 , A. AL-LAHEM 3 and G. SCHÖNIAN 1 1 Institut für Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2 Laboratory of Leishmaniasis, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, Palestine and 3 University of Aleppo, Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, Aleppo, Syria Abstract. Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli) (Diptera: Psychodidae) is the main vector of Leishmania major Yakimoff & Schokhor; which is the cause of self-limiting cutane- ous leishmaniasis in the Old World. This sandfly is found in houses, animal shelters, caves and rodent burrows. It has a large geographical range, which includes the Middle East and the Mediterranean regions. A population analysis of colony and field speci- mens of P. papatasi was conducted on 25 populations originating from 10 countries. The distribution of haplotypes of the maternally inherited mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were analysed to assess the population differentiation of P. papatasi. Alignment of a 442-basepair region at the 3 ′ end of the gene identified 21 haplotypes and 33 segregat- ing sites from 131 sandflies. The pattern of sequence variations did not support the existence of a species complex. The median-joining network method was used to de- scribe both the origin of the haplotypes and the population structure; haplotypes tended to cluster by geographical location, suggesting some level of genetic differentiation be- tween populations. Our findings indicate the presence of significant population differ- entiation for populations derived from Syria, Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Knowledge of population differentiation among P. papatasi populations is important for understanding patterns of dispersal in this species and for planning appropriate control measures. Key words. Phlebotomus papatasi, cytochrome b, mtDNA, population differentiation, sandflies, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Turkey. Correspondence: Omar Hamarsheh, Institut für Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Dorotheenstrasse 96, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Tel.: + 49 17 6240 89138; Fax: + 49 30 4505 24902; E-mail: omar.hamarsheh@charite.de