title: Phlebotominae sandflies as the key link of Leishmania parasitic systems.
abstract: Interrelations of Leishmania with their invertebrate hosts-sandflies are sufficiently specific. Among the factors determining the specificity of Leishmania-Phlebotominae species to species relations the peritrophic membrane is one of the most important. It has various structural and functional pecularities in representatives of different Phlebotominae species, which determine the character of the Leishmania life cycle within sandflies. The spatial and temporal existence of leishmaniases foci as well as their epidemiological manifestation are conditioned by both the adaptation of sandfly species-the invertebrate hosts of the parasites to certain landscapes and their connection with certain species of vertebrate hosts as a source of bloodfeeding. Thus Phlebotominae sandflies play the part of the key link of the Leishmania parasitic systems.
authors.affiliation: Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology & Microbiology AMS of the USSR.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Saf'janova
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000469:parasitology*; D007814:Larva; D007891:Leishmania / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007896:Leishmaniasis / Q000635:transmission*; D008322:Mammals / Q000469:parasitology; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology; D012104:Reptiles / Q000469:parasitology; D013045:Species Specificity