Autogeny in Panamanian Phlebotomus Sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae)1

Abstract

In the course of leishmaniasis studies at Gorgas Memorial Laboratory females of Phlebotomus gomezi Nitz., one of the laboratory-reared species, occasionally were discovered producing fertile eggs without a previous blood meal. Nine autogenous strains of this species, one reaching the 11th generation, have been maintained in laboratory culture. Autogenous females do not need any form of food as adults and apparently produce eggs by utilizing the well-developed fat body, which never shows comparable development in normal, anautogenous females. Normal strains of P. gomezi , some now in the 13th laboratory generation, have never been observed to reproduce autogenously in the laboratory. Attempts at reciprocal crossing indicate that autogenous and normal individuals of the laboratory strains do not interbreed, or at least do not produce fertile eggs. Autogenous females are found in nature in small numbers throughout the year.