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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 98, No. s1, 2003, pp. 35-37
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Bioline Code: oc03007
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 98, No. s1, 2003, pp. 35-37
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Fossil Psychodoid Flies and Their Relation to Parasitic Diseases
Dany Azar & André Nel
Abstract
Psychodid sand flies are blood-sucking
fly vectors of several parasitic diseases. The oldest definitive record of this
group is from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Lebanon (circa -135 to -125 My), but
the high diversity within this group supports the idea that the psychodoids originated
much earlier in history. The palaeontology demonstrates that the Lower Cretaceous
representatives of the different subfamilies of Psychodidae had similar morphology
and were blood-feeders, which supports Hennig's hypothesis on the ground plan
structure of this family. Historical relationship between sand flies and diseases
is unclear up to the present time, but this relationship could be as old as the
origin of psychodoids because of the blood-feeding life mode.
Keywords
fossil psychodoidea - blood-feeder - sand flies - amber
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