Phlebotomine sand flies fauna (Diptera: Psychodidae), inAlborz province, Iran

Sand flies of the Phlebotomine family are the main vectors of leishmaniasis (salak) and some other diseases all around the world. Salak is endemic disease in many parts of Iran. Due to the fact that in recent years, we have witnessed the occurrence of salak in Alborz province, and since providing an effective control strategy for vector- borne diseases, requires identification of the fauna of their vectors, the present study was carried out with the aims of identifying the fauna of these sand flies in Alborz province. Sand flies were collected biweekly during the months of August, September and October 2021, from designated areas, using sticky traps. In this study, 1157 sand flies were collected and identified. The number of sand flies caught from indoor and outdoor places was respectively 31.72% and  68.28%. Overall, Six of which were of genus Phlebotomus (Raynal, 1937), including P. papatasi (Scopoli, 1786), 695(60.07%), P. kandelakii (Shchurenkova, 1926), 13(1.12%), P. sergenti (Parrot, 1917), 232(20.05%), P. major (Annandale, 1910), 14(1.21%), P. caucasicus (Marzinowsky,1917), 4(0.35%), P. alexandri (Alexandri Sinton, 1920), 18(1.56%), and four were of the genus Sergentomyia  (Artemiev, 1978), including S. tiberiadis (Adler, Theodor & Lourie, 1930), 109(9.42%), S. baghdadis (Adler & Theodor, 1929), 53(4.58%), S.sintoni (Sintoni Pringle, 1933), 14(1.21%), S. clydei (Sinton, 1928), 5(0.43%).  This study has shown that, P. papatasi (Scopoli, 1786) and P. sergenti (Parrot, 1917) are the most abundant species, and it seems these could be the potential vectors for cutaneous leishmaniasis in the region. Understanding fauna and ecological aspects of sand flies can help to control of disease.