Sand Fly (Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) Ecology of an Emerging Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Focus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with an Updated Species Checklist from Pakistan

Leishmaniasis, an important neglected vector borne disease, endemic in the northern parts of Pakistan. The disease mainly exist in cutaneous form while sporadic cases of visceral leishmaniasis has also been reported from the affected areas. Present study was designed to know the species composition, relative abundance and seasonal variation of leishmaniasis vector in an emerging endemic focus of Nowshera. Sand flies collected by flit method were identified into 4 species of genus Phlebotomus and 17 species of genus Sergentomyia . P. sergenti , the suspected vector of leishmaniasis was also collected in this survey. Sergentomyia baghdadis and S. babu were the most abundant species and sand fly active season extended from March to November with a unimodal distribution and population reaching its peak during the month of August. A supplementary collection from Charun area of Chitral revealed 12 species of Phlebotomus and four species of Sergentomyia. Among the total 31 species collected from both areas, six species of Phlebotomus (P. angustus, P. comatus, P. kabulensis, P. rupester, P. turanicus and P. newsteadi) collected from Chitral and a single species of Sergentomyia ( S. sagodina ) collected from Nowshera are new reports to Pakistan. Current study also added subgenus Kasaulius to the Phlebotomus of Pakistan . With the addition of these seven species, the checklist of sand flies of Pakistan has increased to 50 species, checklist provided.