FIOCRUZ | Accessing the sand fly diversity in caves of Tocantins, Northern Brazil: species delimitation using COI DNA barcoding

Sand flies (Diptera, Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) are considered natural vectors of infectious agents, mainly known for the transmisison of Leishmania to humans and non-human animals. About 1,060 species are recognized, of which 73 have been recorded in the state of Tocantins, located in the transition of Amazon and Cerrado biomes, Northern Brazil. Here, we report the sand fly fauna in different environments of the municipality of Palmas, including caves. The sand flies were identified by morphology and Also, we evaluated a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) as reliable for species delimitation in this region. A total of 163 sand flies distributed in 26 species and 13 genera.

白蛉（双翅目Diptera、毛蠓科Psychodidae、白蛉亚科Phlebotominae）被视为病原体的自然传播媒介，尤以向人类及非人动物传播利什曼原虫（Leishmania）而广受认知。目前全球已确认的白蛉物种约有1060种，其中73种记录于巴西北部地处亚马逊（Amazon）与塞拉多（Cerrado）生物群落过渡带的托坎廷斯州（Tocantins）。本研究报道了帕尔马斯市（Palmas）不同生境（包括洞穴）中的白蛉物种区系。研究通过形态学对采集到的白蛉进行物种鉴定，并评估了细胞色素c氧化酶亚基1（cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, COI）基因片段在该区域用于物种界定的可靠性。本次研究共采集到163头白蛉，隶属于13属26种。