Carbon dioxide anesthesia in phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae): CO2 effect upon two laboratory colonies.

Gravid females of 2 sand fly species, Phlebotomus papatasi and P. perniciosus, were exposed to carbon dioxide anesthesia for 5, 10 and 20 minutes. Recovery time, mortality at 0 min and 24 h, percentage of females laying eggs, time to oviposition, and egg productivity for each exposure time were registered. Survival, fecundity and oviposition time in the 2 species were not adversely affected by the short period of CO2 anesthesia routinely used in the sand fly colony maintenance.