Morphological distinction between two sympatric species:: Phlebotomus perniciosus and Phlebotomus longicuspis (Diptera: Psychodidae)

In this article we present a new approach for the distinction of two sympatric species of Phlebotomus vectors of visceral leishmaniasis due to Leishmania infantum in Algeria. In countries around the Mediterranean Sea, Phlebotomus perniciosus Newstead 1911 revealed the existence of atypic morphes which cause erroneous identifications wilhich consequently can lead to confusions with the closely similar species Phlebotomus longicuspis Nitzulescu 1930. We used the morphological criteriaof identification as a first approach on morphological variation of these species. Besides the genital characteristics, the numbers of median coxite were included. This approach allows determining the existence of particular morphological types of Phlebotomus pemiciosus in the investigated areas.