STUDY OF THE PHLEBOTOMINES (DIPTERA, PSYC HODIDAE), IN AREA OF CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS IN THE MATO-GROSSO-DO-SUL STATE, BRAZIL

Studies of the phlebotomine sandflies on the Boa Sorte farm, Corguinho county, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Central-West region of Brazil, w ere carried out, with the object of identifying local fauna and a cuta neous leishmaniasis vector. At the beginning of the studies, several t ypes of primitive vegetation covering: gallery forest, forest slopes a nd the cerrados: s. str. and tropical xeromorphic semideciduous broadl eaf forest, locally denominated ''croa'', existed. Four months after t he beginning of the studies, a fire destroyed a significant part of th e cerrados. Captures were made during the interval from July/91 to Jun e/93, with a CDC trap, weekly, at 10 ecotopes: in the soil of forest s lopes; 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 inf ection in female phlebotomines was made through the dissection of spec imens captured in the Shannon's trap and on human bait. The captures w ith CDC totalled in 2,281 specimens of 26 species: 2 of Brumptomyia an d 24 of Lutzomyia. The ''croa'' was the environment that contributed w ith the greatest number of specimens and presented the largest diversi ty, together with the forest slope. L. withmani was the most abundant species captured with CDC, in all the ecotypes (Standardized abundance index = 0.991). However, in the storage shed its frequence was the lo west. This species presented a prevalence of 96.0% in the Shannon's tr ap and on human bait (3265 and 516 specimens, respectively). It was th e most frequent in the cold and dry period. It presented almost exclus ively nocturnal activity, with its peak at 18:00-19:00 hours and an in fection rate by flagellates of 0.16% (613 females dissected). On the b asis of its behavior, this species was incriminated as the probable ve ctor of the cutaneous leishmaniasis in the area, which had extradomici lary transmission. L. lenti, the second most abundant species, is not anthropophilic. The phlebotomine fauna is presented by environment.