''Lutzomyia shannoni'' is a species of

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

in the subfamily

Phlebotominae The Phlebotominae are a subfamily of the family Psychodidae. In several countries, their common name is sandfly; but that name is also applied to other flies. The Phlebotominae include many genera of blood-feeding (hematophagous) flies, including ...

, the phlebotomine sand flies. It is native to the Americas from the

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

to northern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It has a

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

, and is only found in regions with suitable climates, habitat types, and host animals.Ferro, C., et al. (1998)
Life cycle and fecundity analysis of ''Lutzomyia shannoni'' (Dyar) (Diptera: Psychodidae).
''Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro'' 93(2), 195-99. It is well known as a

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

of the

vesicular stomatitis virus ''Indiana vesiculovirus'', formerly ''Vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus'' (VSIV or VSV) is a virus in the family ''Rhabdoviridae''; the well-known ''Rabies lyssavirus'' belongs to the same family. VSIV can infect insects, cattle, horses and pigs ...

, which causes the disease vesicular

stomatitis Stomatitis is inflammation of the mouth and lips. It refers to any inflammatory process affecting the mucous membranes of the mouth and lips, with or without oral ulceration. In its widest meaning, stomatitis can have a multitude of different cau ...

in animals, particularly

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

Description

This insect belongs to the order

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

, the true flies. The adult has wings less than 3 millimeters long, which are held erect. It has a narrow silvery-brown body and long legs. It is a

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

species; the male has a slender abdomen with large terminalia at the end, and it lacks

mandibles In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

, while the female has mandibles and a wider abdomen.Mann, R. S., et al
A Sand Fly, ''Lutzomyia shannoni'' Dyar (Insecta: Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotomine).
EENY-421. Entomology and Nematology. Florida Cooperative Extension Service. University of Florida IFAS. 2009. Only the female feeds on the

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

s, which requires mandibles. The abdomen becomes distended with the ingestion of a blood meal. The dark brown eggs are elongated in shape, about 0.3 millimeters long by 0.1 millimeters wide. The newly emerged larva is up to about 0.7 millimeters in length, not counting the two long, thin caudal

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

e, which are twice the length of the body. The new larva is cream-colored with a light brown, well-developed head. By the second and third

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

s, there are four caudal setae. The fourth instar larva is around 5 millimeters long including the caudal setae, which are about as long as the body. The

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

resembles a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

chrysalis.

Biology

The habitat of the fly is generally

hardwood forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These for ...

.Price, D. C., et al. (2011)
First collection records of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) from New Jersey.
''Journal of Medical Entomology'' 48(2), 476-78. It is

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

, resting during the day in dark, humid spots such as holes in trees or animal burrows.

Oviposition The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...

and larval development take place in similar spots, often in crevices filled with organic debris. In the United States it is common in the hollows of tree species such as laurel oak (''Quercus laurifolia'') and

southern live oak ''Quercus virginiana'', also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree endemic to the Southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South. ...

(''Q. virginiana''). The male and female feed on plant juices such as

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

. The female must feed on blood for the maturation of its

ovarian follicle An ovarian follicle is a roughly spheroid cellular aggregation set found in the ovaries. It secretes hormones that influence stages of the menstrual cycle. At the time of puberty, women have approximately 200,000 to 300,000 follicles, each with th ...

s and production of fertile eggs. Hosts include many

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, including

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

, swine,

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

s, and humans.Mann, R. S. and P. E. Kaufman. (2010)
Colonization of ''Lutzomyia shannoni'' (Diptera: Psychodidae) utilizing an artificial blood feeding technique.
''Journal of Vector Ecology'' 35(2), 286-94. In

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

it commonly feeds on

sloth Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their li ...

s. Humans experience bites from the fly at night, when it is active. The adult fly lives 4 to 15 days, and the total egg-to-adult life cycle is about 36 to 74 days long. The wings of the fly are functional but it is a weak flyer, going no more than half a kilometer at a time.

As a vector

The bite of the female fly transmits the vesicular stomatitis virus in mammals. The disease in cattle and pigs is impossible to distinguish from

foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, followe ...

. The virus causes blistering lesions of the mouth, nose,

hooves The hoof (plural: hooves) is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, which is covered and strengthened with a thick and horny keratin covering. Artiodactyls are even-toed ungulates, species whose feet have an even number of digits, yet the rumi ...

, and teats. The blisters break and leave painful raw tissue. Animals may refuse food and water and become

lame Lame or LAME may refer to: Music * "Lame" (song) by Unwritten Law * ''Lame'' (album) by Iame People * Ibrahim Lame (born 1953), Nigerian educator and politician * Jennifer Lame (), American film editor * Quintín Lame (1880–1967), Colombian ...

. They experience weight loss and

dairy cattle Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species ''Bos taurus''. Historically, little distinction was mad ...

produce less milk. Humans can be infected with the virus and experience

flu-like symptoms Influenza-like illness (ILI), also known as flu-like syndrome or flu-like symptoms, is a medical diagnosis of possible influenza or other illness causing a set of common symptoms. These include fever, shivering, chills, malaise, dry cough, loss o ...

and occasionally oral blisters and

lymphadenopathy Lymphadenopathy or adenopathy is a disease of the lymph nodes, in which they are abnormal in size or consistency. Lymphadenopathy of an inflammatory type (the most common type) is lymphadenitis, producing swollen or enlarged lymph nodes. In cli ...

in the neck. One well-studied vesicular stomatitis virus

enzootic Enzootic is the non-human equivalent of endemic and means, in a broad sense, "belonging to" or "native to", "characteristic of", or "prevalent in" a particular geography, race, field, area, or environment; native to an area or scope. It also has t ...

involving this fly is on

Ossabaw Island Ossabaw Island is one of the Sea Islands located on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia approximately twenty miles by water south from the historic downtown of the city of Savannah. One of the largest of Georgia's barrie ...

off the coast of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in the United States. The fly feeds on feral Ossabaw Island Hogs and spreads the virus widely, though clinical disease is rare. The female can transmit the virus to its offspring via its ovaries, so the juvenile flies can emerge already carrying the pathogen.Goddard, J. and C. P. McHugh. (2005)
New records for the phlebotomine sand fly ''Lutzomyia shannoni'' (Dyar) (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Mississippi.
''Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences'' 50(3), 195-96. The species can also harbor various ''

Leishmania ''Leishmania'' is a parasitic protozoan, a single-celled organism of the genus '' Leishmania'' that are responsible for the disease leishmaniasis. They are spread by sandflies of the genus ''Phlebotomus'' in the Old World, and of the genus '' ...

'' protozoans, including ''

Leishmania mexicana ''Leishmania mexicana'' belongs to the '' Leishmania'' genus and is the causal agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Mexico and central America. ''Leishmania mexicana'' is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that causes the cutaneous f ...

''. It is a suspected vector of ''

Leishmania infantum ''Leishmania infantum'' is the causative agent of infantile visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean region and in Latin America, where it has been called ''Leishmania chagasi''. It is also an unusual cause of cutaneous leishmaniasis, which i ...

'' and '' L. brasiliensis'', pathogens that cause

leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...

.Petersen, C. A. (2009)
Leishmaniasis, an emerging disease found in companion animals in the United States.
''Topics in Companion Animal Medicine'' 24(4), 182-88.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4043271 Psychodidae Diptera of North America Diptera of South America Insect vectors of animal pathogens Arthropods of Argentina Insects of Mexico Insects of the United States Insects described in 1929