First record of Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the Comoros Archipelago with description ofSergentomyia (Vattieromyia) pessonin. sp. andS. (rondanomyia) goodmani comorensisn. ssp.

F.J Randrianambinintsoa,C Brengues,I Yahaya,C Dhondt,J Depaquit,A Ouledi,V Robert,N Léger

doi:10.1051/parasite/2012193195

Abstract

No Phlebotomine sandflies had ever been reported in the Comoros Archipelago, including the three islands of the Republic of the Union of Comoros (Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan) and the French oversea department of Mayotte. During three field surveys carried out in 2003, 2007 and 2011, we provided the first record of Phlebotomine sandflies in this area. A total of 85 specimens belonging to three species were caught: a new species S. (Vattieromyia) pessoni n. sp. (two females from Grande Comore), a new subspecies of Sergentomyia (Rondanomyia) goodmani (80 specimens from Grande Comore and one from Anjouan) and Grassomyia sp. (two females from Mohéli). The individualisation of these taxa was inferred both from morphological criteria and sequencing of a part of the cytochrome b of the mitochondrial DNA. These taxa are closely related to Malagasy sandflies.

Highlights

No record of Phlebotomine sandfly exists in the literature and there was no case of leishmaniasis in the Comoros Archipelago
Two female specimens of the subgenus Vattieromyia belong to a new species described below
Within the Vattieromyia, the species Sergentomyia sclerosiphon, S. namo and S. anka are as strongly supported as the two specimens caught in the Comoros islands

Summary

Introduction

No record of Phlebotomine sandfly exists in the literature and there was no case of leishmaniasis in the Comoros Archipelago. The latter includes the Islands of the Union of the Comoros (Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli) and Mayotte (a French oversea department). Little is known about Phlebotomine sandflies from South-eastern Africa (Abonnenc, 1972; Artemiev, 1985; Davidson, 1987) and from Madagascar (Depaquit et al, 2002, 2004a & b, 2007, 2008; Léger et al, 2005). A total of 85 adult specimens have been captured. All the specimens have been examined morphologically and some of them have been processed for molecular biology. Two new taxa for Science are described in the present study

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion