Abstract
The daily and seasonal man-biting activity of 7 anthropophilic species of phlebotomine sandflies was recorded in a Panamanian forest over a period of one year. Lutzomyia olmeca, L. panamensis , and L. pessoana were predominantly active at ground level, L. gomezi, L. sanguinaria, L. trapidoi , and L. ylephiletrix in the forest canopy. The distribution of daily biting activity at ground level was 45.9% crepuscular, 39.0% nocturnal, and 15.1% diurnal. The relatively high level of diurnal biting was due to one species, L. pessoana . In the forest canopy the distribution was 35.7% crepuscular, 63.7% nocturnal, and only 0.6% diurnal. The seasonal manbiting activity was not totally in accord with either specific or total population trends, indicating that the biting rate at a particular time was related not only to sandfly density but to other undefined factors, including variation in physiological state of female flies.
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