Mitochondrial DNA phylogeny indicates close relationships between populations of Lutzomyia whitmani (Diptera : Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) from the rain-forest regions of Amazonia and northeast Brazil

Phylogenetic analysis of all 31 described mitochondrial (cytochrome b) hapl otypes of Lutzomyia whitmani demonstrated that new material from the State of Rondonia, in southwest Amazonia, forms a clade within a lineage found on ly in the rain-forest regions of Brazil. This rain-forest lineage also cont ains two other clades of haplotypes, one from eastern Amazonia and one from the Atlantic forest zone of northeast Brazil (including the type locality of the species in Ilheus, State of Bahia). These findings do not favour rec ognizing two allopatric cryptic species of L. whitmani, one associated with the silvatic transmission of Leishmania shawl in southeast Amazonia and th e other with the peridomestic transmission of Le. braziliensis in northeast Brazil. Instead, they suggest that there is (or has been ii? the recent pa st) a continuum of inter-breeding populations of L. whitmani in the rain-fo rest regions of Brazil.