Diagnostic Importance of Female External Genital Structure of Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera:Psychodidae) as Observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy

Morphological description of sand,flies has remained a neglected area. The different organs used in taxonomy have not yet been described adequatelAy with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We have examined the external genital structures offemales of three Old World phlebotomine sand,flies under SEMand recorded the morphological variations of the organs. We have,found the,female external genital structures of the three species varied considerably in mor*phologv. The importance of the,female external genital structures in sand,fly identification is indicated.