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9 April 2020 Influence of Moonlight on Male Mating Aggregations of Nyssomyia whitmani, a Vector of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Brazil
Gildene Silva Brito, João Vitor Castro Aguiar, Mayara de Sousa de Almeida, Islana Silva Ponte, Benedita Maria Costa Neta, Francinaldo Soares Silva
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Abstract

Nyssomyia whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho) is the sandfly vector of causative agents of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in South and Central America. It is widely spread throughout Brazil, in a close association with domestic animals. Almost nothing is known about male mating aggregations in N. whitmani, let alone the influence of moonlight on this behavior. Thus, the influence of moonlight on male N. whitmani aggregations was investigated by using non-attractant suction traps deployed in chicken cages under full moon and new moon nights. In this 18-night study, 2,160 specimens and seven species were collected. The most frequent species was N. whitmani accounting for 91.48% of the total sample. The abundance of males of N. whitmani was significantly higher in the presence than in the absence of moon. The sex ratio on new moon nights was 1:1 (M:F) and on full moon nights was male-biased (1.7:1). Based on this study, an influence of moonlight on male mating aggregations of N. whitmani was verified. The extent of this influence on increasing sandfly aggregation at hosts, the moonlight influence on the early flight activity of male sandflies and the use of chickens as aggregation sites for males of N. whitmani, are all discussed.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Gildene Silva Brito, João Vitor Castro Aguiar, Mayara de Sousa de Almeida, Islana Silva Ponte, Benedita Maria Costa Neta, and Francinaldo Soares Silva "Influence of Moonlight on Male Mating Aggregations of Nyssomyia whitmani, a Vector of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Brazil," Journal of Medical Entomology 57(5), 1648-1652, (9 April 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjaa048
Received: 19 December 2019; Accepted: 16 February 2020; Published: 9 April 2020
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KEYWORDS
leishmaniasis
Nyssomyia
sandfly
sex ratio
vector control
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