Leishmaniasis in Sardinia. I. Observations on a larval breeding site of Phlebotomus perniciosus, Phlebotomus perfiliewi perfiliewi and Sergentomyia minuta (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the canine leishmaniasis focus of Soleminis (Cagliari).

During the summer-autumn period of 1983 and 1984, 1408 specimens of Phlebotomus perniciosus, 74 of P. perfiliewi perfiliewi and 35 of Sergentomyia minuta were caught in emergence traps in a locality close to the village of Soleminis, a canine leishmaniasis focus 15 km from Cagliari, Sardinia. All the flies were collected from a breeding site inside an abandoned cement building. Male flies were highly predominant for all three species. A few larvae of P. perniciosus were also collected from the same site. This is the first finding of an abundant larval breeding site of P. perniciosus.