Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) of Marrakech city, Morocco.

The sandflies at 17 sites within or near the Moroccan city of Marrakech were surveyed between 2002 and 2006. Overall 2310 specimens were collected and five species were identified. Phlebotomus (Phlebotomus) papatasi was the most prevalent species (47.4%), followed by Sergentomyia (Sergentomyia) minuta (16.6%), S. (S.) fallax (16.1%), P. (Paraphlebotomus) sergenti (12.8%) and P. (Larroussius) longicuspis (7.1%). Phlebotomus sergenti appeared to be the most endophilic species. When the collection sites were categorized into five types of habitat, only P. papatasi and S. minuta were found to be common in every habitat type. Urbanization seemed to have a significant effect on the numbers and species of sandfly. In the year after the demolition and redevelopment of the Akioud neighbourhood, there were far fewer sandflies and species of sandfly than observed before the redevelopment. Two years later, however, the sandfly population was found to be much larger than that seen before the neighbourhood was demolished.