Phlebotomus orientalis (Ashford, 2000)

Sadlova, Jovana, Vojtkova, Barbora, Becvar, Tomas, Lestinova, Tereza, Spitzova, Tatiana, Bates, Paul & Volf, Petr, 2020, Host competence of the African rodents Arvicanthis neumanni, A. niloticus and Mastomys natalensis for Leishmania donovani from Ethiopia and L. (Mundinia) sp. from Ghana, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 11, pp. 40-45 : 42

3.3. Host choice experiments with P. orientalis

Two potential rodent hosts were offered to P. orientalis females in each pair-wise comparison, and each host combination was tested four times with hosts alternating between lateral cages. Phlebotomus orientalis females showed very low feeding rate on all tested rodents: 1.4–5.8% of females took bloodmeals during experiments (Table 2). No difference was observed in attractiveness of A. niloticus (the bigger species) and A. neumanni (the smaller species), or between Mastomys and Arvicanthis (represented by A. neumanni ). On the other hand, significant preferences were observed when human forearm was offered as an alternative to rodents: sand flies preferred human forearms to both Arvicanthis and Mastomys (Table 2). Engorged females that took blood meals on different hosts were further followed for comparison of mortality and fecundity. Mortality (until day 4 PBM) ranged between 15.2% and 54.5%, but was not significantly influenced by host types (Table 2). Four days PBM, females were allowed to oviposit in small glass vials where they were kept individually. Blood source did not influence significantly either the proportion of females laying eggs or the numbers of eggs laid by individual females. Median numbers of eggs per female were 36–53, depending on the experiment (Table 2).