Research Article
Distribution and Seasonal Activity of Phlebotominae
Sand Flies in Yazd and Its Outskirts, Center of Iran
Motahareh Mirhoseini,
1
Aref Salehzadeh,
1
Sara Ramazan Jamaat,
2
Amir Hosein Zahirnia,
1
and Najmeh Rahmanzadeh
3
1
Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences,
Hamadan, Iran
2
Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
3
Yazd Health Center, Yazd, Iran
Correspondence should be addressed to Aref Salehzadeh; a salehzadeh@yahoo.com
Received 14 August 2017; Accepted 7 November 2017; Published 27 December 2017
Academic Editor: Rashidul Haque
Copyright © 2017 Motahareh Mirhoseini et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Background. Phlebotominae sand fies are the main vectors of leishmaniasis and some other diseases. Materials and Methods. Using
sticky traps, sand fies were collected fortnightly from outdoors and indoors areas of selected sites. Results. A total of 2032 specimens
(498 in the city and 1534 in the outskirts of Yazd) belonging to 11 species were collected. Te activity of sand fies started in early-
April and ended in mid-November. Tere were two peaks of activity in the end of April and mid-September. Phlebotomus sergenti
and P. papatasi were the most abundant species in the city and outskirts of Yazd city, respectively. Other species were P. salehi, P.
ansarii, P. kazerouni, P. caucasicus, P. andrejevi, P. alexandri, P. mongolensis, Sergentomyia sintoni, and S. palestinensis. Conclusion.
In comparison to some other parts of Iran, the extended period between two peaks suggests that the larvae to adult development
of sand fy were delayed by the higher temperature of the summer months in Yazd province.
1. Introduction
Phlebotominae sand fies are placed in the family Psycho-
didae. Tere are more than 900 species and subspecies of
sand fies worldwide [1] and the presence of at least six
genera, Phlebotomus (Rondani and Bert´ e, 1840), Sergento-
myia (Franc ¸a and Parrot, 1920), and Chinius (Leng 1987) in
the old world and Brumptomyia (Franc ¸a and Parrot, 1921),
Lutzomyia (Franc ¸a, 1924), and Warileya (Hertig, 1948) in the
new world has been accepted by most specialists such as
Bates et al. [1] and Akhoundi et al. [2]. Leishmaniasis refers
to a set of zoonotic diseases usually transmitted by blood-
feeding female sand fies infected with fagellate protozoan
of the genus Leishmania (Ross, 1903). Te disease covers a
wide range of clinical manifestations, from self-healing lesion
that is known as localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) to a
severe systemic form or visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in which
the parasites migrate to the vital organs and if not treated in
time can lead to death. Although cutaneous leishmaniasis is
not a fatal disease, but due to the long term treatment process
and otherwise involvement of patients with chronic wounds
and scars, it has always been of particular concern for people
in endemic areas. Many studies have been conducted in the
feld of leishmaniasis and there is reduction in the number of
reported cutaneous cases of leishmaniasis in Iran [3, 4], but
even with the great eforts of health authorities over the last
four decades, there is still a considerable number of foci of
disease distributed throughout the country [4]. In addition
to diferent types of leishmaniasis, sand fies may carry a
number of other viral diseases such as papatasi fever, summer
meningitis, or Toscana virus as well as Carrion’s disease that
is caused by bacteria [5, 6]. Similar to most other studies
on arthropod borne diseases on the fauna of vectors, the
distribution and other characteristics of diseases have great
importance in planning any program to reduce or even stop
transmission. Te present study was designed to determine
some factors which afect distribution and population size of
Phlebotominae sand fies in Yazd city and the suburbs of Yazd.
Hindawi
e Scientific World Journal
Volume 2017, Article ID 1486845, 5 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1486845