Phlebotomine sandflies were collected between 1952 and 1984
at 30 localities in the tropical rainforest and savanna
regions of Suriname. Thirty-nine species were identified in
the collections (2 Brumptomyia, 37 Lutzomyia),
including two known vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis,
Lutzomyia flaviscutellata and L. umbratilis.
Nineteen of the species are new records for Suriname. In the
rainforest region, the commonest phlebotomines were L.
squamiventris maripaensis (79.8%), L. umbratilis
(8.4%) and L. flaviscutellata (6.3%) in human bait
catches, L. umbratilis (26.2%), L. infraspinosa
(23.9%) and L. trichopyga (8.3%) in CDC light traps and
L. umbratilis (84.3%), L. whitmani (6.8%) and
L. shannoni (4.3%) in collections from tree trunks. The
mean incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis from 1979-1985 was
4.9 per 1000 inhabitants for the rainforest region and 0.66
per 1000 for Suriname as a whole.
