Phlebotomine sandflies fauna in the Kedougou area of Senegal, importance in arbovirus transmission.

Phlebotomine sand-flies were captured on a bimonthly basis from April 1995 to March 1996 in the Kedougou district of south-east Senegal. In all, 6,642 specimens were identified belonging to 25 species. Eleven spe cies were captured in tree holes, 17 in termites hills, 19 in rodent burrow s and 23 on grass. Sergentomyia buxtoni, 5. clydei, S. dubia, S. squamipleu ris et S. schwetzi were the most abundant. Species from the genus Sergentom yia accounted for 99.3% versus 0.7% for the genus Phlebotomus. Phlebotomus duboscqi, the leishmaniasis vector in Senegal, was very rare. The male of S . edentula and S. herollandi were recorded for the first time. The sand-fly population was observed to peak in April The most populated resting sites were, in decreasing order termite-hills, burrows and tree-holes. Thirty vir us strains from 5 different viruses (Saboya, Chandipura, Tete, ArD 95737, A rD 111740) were isolated from 30,482 specimens tested.