Ecological Notes and New Records of Sand Flies1 from General Zuazua, Nuevo León, Mexico

Abstract

Phlebotominae sand flies are the main vectors of several species of Leishmania parasites that are the etiological agents of leishmaniasis. The disease is endemic to southeastern Mexico, and many studies focused on the area. Cases of leishmaniasis also occur in other Mexican states such as Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in the northeastern region bordering the United States of America (USA). Cutaneous leishmaniasis was reported intermittently in the State of Nuevo León through the years. Few records of sand fly species exist for the State of Nuevo León, and many municipalities have not been sampled despite potential importance of the disease at certain localities. The main objective of the work was to trap sand flies at the Municipality of General Zuazua, Nuevo León where urbanization occurred rapidly in recent years. A semi-urban location was selected to catch sand fly species using CDC light traps from 6 August through 26 September 2020. In total, 137 specimens in four genera and five species were collected during nine sampling events. Lutzomyia diabolica (Hall, 1936) was dominant at 90.5% of the total collected. Abundance of sand fly species peaked at Sampling Event 5 (34.3%) and differed significantly between sampling events and trap locations at six sites. Using Taylor´s power law, spatial distribution of sand flies was aggregated at the study site. Environmental variables such as air temperature, soil temperature, relative humidity, dew point, and wind speed were not significantly related to abundance of sand flies. The five sand fly species in the study -- Dampfomyia anthophora (Addis, 1945), Micropygomyia apache (Young and Perkins, 1984), Micropygomyia californica (Fairchild and Hertig, 1957), Psathyromyia texana (Dampf, 1938), and Lutzomyia diabolica were new records for the Municipality of General Zuazua, Nuevo León. Although the taxonomic status of M. californica is debatable, the species was recorded for the first time in México. The five species can be added to previous records, for a total of 10 species in the State of Nuevo León. Brief discussion of medical importance of each sand fly species to transmit Leishmania spp. is provided for the region.