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Patterns of sandfly distribution in tropical forest: a causal hypothesis
Author(s) -
MEMMOTT JANE
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
medical and veterinary entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2915
pISSN - 0269-283X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2915.1992.tb00605.x
Subject(s) - sandfly , biology , swarming (honey bee) , buttress , psychodidae , ecology , lutzomyia , phlebotomus , zoology , leishmaniasis , geography , leishmania , parasite hosting , archaeology , world wide web , computer science , immunology
.1 In tropical rain forest, phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae), such as Lutzomyia vespertilionis and L.ylephiletor, have an aggregated distribution on their tree buttress diurnal resting sites, as studied during 1987‐88 at Finca la Selva in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. 2 Experimental transfer of flies to trees not used as resting sites indicated that many apparently suitable sites remain unoccupied. 3 Observations of sandflies on the buttresses revealed that males and females are juxtaposed more frequently than expected by chance alone. Courtship behaviour by three of the four species of sandfly studied was observed on the buttresses. 4 It is suggested that the use of buttresses as swarming sites for mating behaviour is more likely to account for the observed distribution patterns of sandflies than their use of buttresses simply as diurnal resting sites.