ABSTRACT
Studies of the phlebotomine sandflies on the Boa Sorte farm, Corguinho country, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Central-West region of Brazil, were carried out, with the object of identifying local fauna and a cutaneous leishmaniasis vector. At the beginning of the studies, several types of primitive vegetation covering: gallery forest, forest slopes and the cerrados: s. str. and tropical xeromorphic semideciduous broadleaf forest, locally denominated "croa", existed. Four months after the beginning of the studies, a fire destroyed a significant part of the cerrados. Captures were made during the interval from July/91 to June/93, with a CDC trap, weekly, at 10 ecotopes: in the soil of forest slopes; in the soil and canopy of cerrado s. str., "croa" and gallery forest; in the peridomicile, in hen house and pigpen and in a storage shed. A Shannon's trap was used, monthly, from 18:00-24:00 hours, in the gallery forest and "croa". Human bait was used, monthly, for 24 hours, from June/91 to September/92. An investigation into natural infection in female phlebotomines was made through the dissection of specimens captured in the Shannon's trap and on human bait. The captures with CDC totalled in 2,281 specimens of 26 species: 2 of Brumptomyia and 24 of Lutzomyia. The "croa" was the environment that contributed with the greatest number of specimens and presented the largest diversity, together with the forest slope. L, withmani was the most abundant species captured with CDC, in all the ecotopes (Standardized abundance index = 0.991). However, in the storage shed its frequency was the lowest. This species presented a prevalence of 96.0% in the Shannon's trap and on human bait (3,265 and 516 specimens, respectively). It was the most frequent in the cold and dry periods. It presented almost exclusively nocturnal activity, with its peak at 18:00-19:00 hours and an infection rate by flagellates of 0.16% (613 females dissected). On the basis of its behavior, this species was incriminated as the probable vector of the cutaneous leishmaniasis in the area, which had extradomicilary transmission. L. lenti, the second most abundant species, is not anthropophilic. The phlebotomine fauna is presented by environment.
