What’s in a name? What’s a Sandfly?

Image via Wikipedia

When people talk about sand flies it can be very confusing because there are several different bloodsucking insects around the world called sand flies. This is why scientists use latin names for species to avoid confusion.

My work on sand flies that spread Leishmania parasites is on the group of phlebotomine sand flies. The English name of “sand fly” is very confusing for phlebotomines since they dont all live in sand; Brazilian ones may live in the rainforest, no sand in sight and they don’t all live on the beach. In Middle East deserts it may be appropriate. Both black flies (Simuliidae) and biting midges (Ceratopogonidae) are also known as “sand flies” in various parts of the world. The latter are the ones most likely to be biting people on beaches, particularly members of the genus Culicoides.

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Sand flies, Leishmania and Dinosaurs

Sand flies and other bloodsucking insects have been around for millions of years. They are known to have fed on dinosaurs, there are still reptile feeding sand flie around today. George and Roberta Poinar have studied fossil amber and found 100 million year old sand flies from amber created in the dinosaur era. These sand flies were found to contain Leishmania parasites in their proboscis; thus Leishmania might have plagued the dinosaurs and even helped force them into extinction.

A scientific paper giving more details of the technique of examining sand flies in dominicon amber is given in this link….

Lutzomyia adiketis sp. n. (Diptera: Phlebotomidae), a vector of Paleoleishmania neotropicum sp. n. (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) in Dominican amber.

My research on sand flies and leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis is an important disease and the parasite is transmitted by blood-sucking sand flies with approximately two million new cases every year and one tenth of the world’s population at risk of infection. The WHO give a good introduction about the current situation around the world regarding Leishmaniasis.

Leishmania are parasites transmitted by the bite of the small midge–like phlebotomine sand fly.

One of the main ways to control leishmaniasis is to control the insect or disrupt the insect part of the parasite life cycle but our knowledge of the sand fly in relation to development of the parasite is inadequate for developing new targets for control.

One of my main projects is to identify the genes involved in the interaction of the sand fly and the parasite that it transmits and this will greatly extend our knowledge of the interaction between insect and Leishmania and provide a sound basis for developing new control systems for this disease. We are also involved in field based research examining sand fly biology and the spread of the disease in urban environments in N.E. Brazil.

Short Video clips of sand fly collecting sites in Teresina Brazil.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/12853020

More backyard sand fly collecting from Rod Dillon on Vimeo.

Afghanistan hit by skin disease (bbc.co.uk) People in Kabul are suffering from leishmaniasis; in this case the less serious cutaneous form of the disease. However this causes unsightly skin lesions and carries social stigma and may prevent young girls from finding a suitable partner.
Observations of a Nerd Ah, the joys of a tropical getaway. There’s warm, clear waters, soft, sandy beaches, and of course, a whole ton of amazing parasites waiting to gorge on your delicious flesh……..

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