Phlebotomus (Phlebotomus) papatasi (Scopoli, 1786)

Rioux, Jean-Antoine, Gramiccia, Marina, Léger, Nicole, Desjeux, Philippe & Depaquit, Jérôme, 2020, Leishmaniasis and phlebotomine sand flies in Oman Sultanate, Parasite (Paris, France) 27 (68), pp. 1-13 : 5

Phlebotomus (Phlebotomus) papatasi (Scopoli, 1786)

The male is characterised by the presence of two spines at the end of the surstyle, by a group of more than ten big setae at the distal part of the gonocoxite, by the upper part of the paramere longer than the other ones and covered with setae along its full length. The ascoids are relatively short and never reach the next articulation.

The female is identified by its annealed spermathecae with sessile head wrapped in a cloud. Its pharyngeal armature presents teeth with, at the anterior part, many comb-like ones. Ascoids never reach the next articulation.

The distribution of this major vector of L. major [ 34] is very large, from Bangladesh to Morocco and from Crimea to Sudan. Limited to the North of the Sahara in West Africa, the species is most southern in East Africa. In Oman, the species is absent in the Dhofar, but dominates in the Sharqiyah. It was previously recorded in the Wahiba sands of the Sultanate [ 36].