Leishmaniasis in Sardinia

Abstract

During the summer—autumn period of 1983 and 1984, 1408 specimens of Phlebotomus perniciosus, 74 of P. perfiliewi perfiliewi and 35 of Sergentomyia minuta were caught in emergence traps in a locality close to the village of Soleminis, a canine leishmaniasis focus 15 km from Cagliari, Sardinia. All the flies were collected from a breeding site inside an abandoned cement building. Male flies were highly predominant for all three species. A few larvae of P. perniciosus were also collected from the same site. This is the first finding of an abundant larval breeding site of P. perniciosus.