Leishmania in phlebotomid sandflies II. The insusceptibility of sandfly larvae to Leishmania

Abstract

The susceptibility of fourth instar larvae of Lutzomyia flaviscutellata to Leishmania mexicana amazonensis was investigated by feeding them infected female sandflies or cultured promastigotes. Neither larvae nor adult flies reared from the larvae became infected. It is suggested that during evolution Leishmania has lost the ability, retained by the related genus Leptomonas, to be transmitted in nature from one invertebrate host to another.