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The present study aimed to check the sand flies' fauna on the municipality of Lassance, Minas Gerais, Brazil and detect the presence of Leishmania DNA on the female captured and determine the risk areas of the municipality. Sand flies were collected monthly from May 2018 to April 2019 using automatic light traps for 3 consecutive nights. Eight houses were selected as sample points due its previous reports of tegumentary leishmaniasis and/or canine leishmaniasis. The sand fly's fauna found on the present study it's represented by several medical importance species and the most abundant species found were Lutzomyia longipalpis (77.09%) and Nyssomyia intermedia (10.06%). Leishmania infantum DNA was detected in a pool of Lu. longipalpis resulting on a 2.81% of infection rate. By the frequency of the two most abundant species on this study, we developed a risk area map and it draws attention to sample point 6 due to disparate abundance of sand flies at this site (81.81%). Statistical overview shows Lu. longipalpis as dominant species and, still, Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling analysis reveal high similarity on fauna's diversity on the study area. Our findings suggest that the diversity of sand flies from the municipality of Lassance may promote the circulation of Leishmania infantum parasites putting in risk the habitants and other mammal's species. Still, our study reinforces the necessity of specific studies focused on breed sites of phlebotomine and its' ecology to expand the knowledge about the behaviour of this group of insects applying directly to leishmaniases' epidemiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genus and species of phlebotomine sand flies have been recorded and described in caves in Brazil, but no study has provided the food source used by sand flies in these environments. Herein, we identified the blood source used by sand fly species in caves located at "Quadrilátero Ferrífero" (QF), Minas Gerais state. Specimens were manually collected near or on anurans inside ferruginous caves in Serra do Gandarela National Park and Serra do Rola Moça State Park. Males and females were placed in vials with 70% alcohol and stored at −10°C. Females engorged, after specific identification, had DNA extracted and followed for PCR amplification using specific primers. Sequencing was analyzed in the GenBank and Barcode of Life. A total of 198 specimens were collected (107 females and 91 males), all of them belonging to species Sciopemyia aff. microps (88.89%), Sciopemyia sordellii (10.61%), or Martinsmyia oliveirai (0.50%). When it comes to the females, 89 were S. aff. microps and 18 S. sordellii. Nineteen engorged females of S. aff. microps were analyzed and most of them (n=18) presented blood from Bokermannohyla martinsi and one contained blood from Scinax fuscovarius. The blood present in engorged females of S. sordellii (n=4) was from B. martinsi. Sciopemyia genus specimens are commonly found in collections carried out inside natural caves, but this was the first study to prove that females of this genus feed on cold-blooded animals in nature. Highlights: • Here we proved that sand flies feed in cold-blooded animals in in Brazilian caves. • Females of the Sciopemyia genus were for the first time found feeding in natural habitats. • Anurans of the family Hylidae were identified as source by molecular analyzes. • Insect bloodmeal identification can help assessing the fauna in several biomes. • This is the first record of S. aff. microps in caves of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caves are extreme and inhospitable environments that can harbor several species of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Among these animals are phlebotomine sand flies, vectors of parasites of the genus Leishmania that cause leishmaniasis. This study aimed to evaluate the species composition of sand flies of four caves, a cave located at Moeda Sul (MS) and three at Parque Estadual Serra do Rola Moça (PESRM), in the region of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. Sand flies were collected with automatic light traps. Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling, using a dissimilarity matrix calculated with the Jaccard index, and Multivariate Permutation Analysis were used to evaluate sand fly species composition among entrance, interior, and the surrounding environments of each sampled cave and to infer biological mechanisms from patterns of distribution among these different cave environments. A total of 375 phlebotomine sand flies representing 14 species and six genera were collected. The most abundant species were Evandromyia tupynambai (54.7%), Brumptomyia troglodytes (25.6%), Evandromyia edwardsi (6.1%), Psathyromyia brasiliensis (4.8%) and Lutzomyia longipalpis (4.3%). Thirty individuals were collected at MS, 16 inside the cave and 14 from its surroundings. At PESRM, five individuals were collected from the surroundings of cave RM38, 190 individuals from cave RM39 (48 in the cave and 142 from its surroundings) and 150 individuals from cave RM40 (42 in the cave and 108 from its surroundings). The results revealed a rich sand fly fauna with similar species compositions among the entrance, interior, and surrounding environments of each sampled cave, suggesting that both caves and their surroundings are important for maintaining sand fly communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]