CONTRAST IN THE CUTICULAR HYDROCARBONS OF SYMPATRIC PHLEBOTOMUS (SYNPHLEBOTOMUS) FEMALES (DIPTERA, PHLEBOTOMINAE)

The cuticular hydrocarbons of laboratory-bred and wild-caught females of Phlebotomus martini Parrot and P. celiae Minter, originating from s outhern Ethiopia, were used to distinguish females of the two sympatri c and isomorphic species. Field-caught sandflies were dissected for pa rasites prior to the analysis. A high degree of separation, was achiev ed between the two species in both laboratory-bred (91.6%) and wild-ca ught (91.3%) specimens. However, the discriminating hydrocarbon peaks in laboratory reared specimens were different from those of wild-caugh t specimens, resulting in a high number of misclassifications in the p ooled analysis of wild and laboratory specimens in each species. High degrees of hydrocarbon differentiation (84.7%-96.7%) between laborator y-bred and wild caught flies within each species were also obtained.