fauna and monthly activity of sand flies at cutaneous leishmaniaisis focus in ghanavat district, qom province (2012)

introduction: cutaneous leishmaniasis is a parasitological disease that is spread in many tropical and subtropical areas in world. this disease transmitted by female sand flies. it is clear that knowledge on sand flies ecology has the main role to planning of control of cl. this study was carried out for determination of cl vectors, in ghanavat district in qom province during 2012. material and methods: the present study was a cross-sectional one that conducted on sand flies. it was carried out in ghanavat district of qom province during 2012. sand flies were collected biweekly from indoors and outdoors (rodent burrows) of three villages, using 180 sticky traps (castor oil coated white paper 20 x 32 cm) from the beginning may to the end november of the active season. for species identification, sand flies were mounted in puri’s medium and identified after 24 h using the keys of theodor and mesghali (1964). findings: a total of 5940 sand flies (2079 from indoors and 3861 from outdoors) were collected and identified. the following seven species was found: phlebotomus papatasi (82.4%). p.sergenti (0/84%), p.caucasicus (0/67%), sergentomyia sintoni (14/7%), s.dentata (1/37%) s.clydei (0/019%) and s.pawlowski (0/001%).the most common sand flies in indoors resting places were p.papatasi (81.6%). two active peaks of sand flies were observed in late may and late august. discussion &conclusion;: our entomological survey showed that p.papatasi was the dominant species in indoors and outdoors. it seems this species can be probable vector for cl in the study area.