Sandflies on the island of Corfu, Greece

The island of Corfu is an endemic area of human leishmaniasis, mainly visce ral and secondly cutaneous. In August 1996, a survey of phlebotomine sandfl ies was conducted throughout the whole island. Using castor-oil paper traps , a total of 2,615 sandflies were caught. The following species were identi fied: 450 (17.21 %) Phlebotomus neglectus, 213 (8.15 %) P. tobbi, 129 (4.93 %) P. perfiliewi, 12 (0.46 %) P. sergenti, 11 (0.42 %) P. simici, 4 (0.15 %) P. papatasi, 999 (38.20 %) Sergentomyia minuta and 797 (30.48%) S. denta ta. Among the potential vectors of Leishmania spp., P. neglectus, P. tobbi and P. perfiliewi, were the most widespread species on the island. However, a decrease of the population density of sandflies compared to previous ent omological studies was observed.