ECOLOGY OF LEISHMANIASIS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE .12. HORIZONTAL DISPERSION OF PHLEBOTOMUS-ARIASI TONNOIR, 1921 - PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS

By use of mark-release-recapture methods, evidence was obtained of the distance of the dispersion of Phlebotomus ariasi Tonnoir, 1021. Female flies, collected in a valley in the Cévennes mountains (at Roquedur, Gard), were marked with fluorescnt powders, released an then recaptured by searching with ultra-violet lamps. The majority of the flies recapture were among ones given a blood meal shortly before release. Recaptures were made from the second day after release. A number of females migrated with blood in the midgut; their ovaries were up to and including stage V. The distance between the extreme points of recapture was about 1 km, and the maximum recorded distance between points of release and recapture was 750 m. The epidemiological interest of these observations is that, at least in the Cévennes foci, the sandfly as well as the dog must now be considered as capable spreading the pathogenic agent of visceral leishmaniasis.