TITLE:
Lutzomyia longipalpis Breeding—A Probable Breeding Substrate for Lutzomyia longipalpis in Nature
AUTHORS:
João Carlos Araujo Carreira, Reginaldo Peçanha Brazil, Bianca dos Santos Carvalho, Alba Valéria Machado da Silva
KEYWORDS:
Leishmaniasis, Sand Flies, Breeding Substrate
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.8 No.4,
September
13,
2018
ABSTRACT:
The identifying of the preferred breeding sites of
sand fly immature forms is quite important to the understanding of the vector’s
biology and the development of more effective control strategies for
leishmaniasis. In the present study, it was analyzed experimentally; the
potential of dog feces of serving as breeding substrate to Lutzomyia longipalpis. Two situations were tested: 1) the life
cycle of the insects from larvae to adults, 2) the whole cycle from adults to
adults. Our results demonstrated for the first time that: 1) L. longipalpis can be easily bred in dog
feces, suggesting that it could represent a potential raising substrate to immature
forms for this species; 2) L. longipalpis larvae are able to make galleries on a substrate, literally burying themselves
in this to function also as a shelter; 3) from the previous information that
dogs infected with Ancylostoma caninum can present dodecanoic acid in their feces, we suggested that this substrate
may be particularly more attractive to L.
longipalpis females seen that this molecule is the same component of their
oviposition pheromone, which is produced by the accessory glands and secreted
onto the eggs; 4) after the copulation the males may landing on the substrate
and continued beating the wings intermittently until the death in a similar
behavior also noticed in other situations associated to kairomones response or
pheromone production. Therefore, we suggested that it is very likely that dog
excrements could serve as an important breeding substrate for L. longipalpis in endemic areas of visceral
leishmaniasis in the New World.