The Exit of Leishmania tropica through the Proboscis of Phlebotomus papatasii

Abstract

IT has been shown (Ann. Trop. Med. and Parasitol., vol. 19, No. 3, and vol. 20, No. 2) that human beings can be infected with Leishmania tropica by inoculation with Herpetomonas from naturally infected sandflies. It has also been shown that sandflies (P. papatasii) both wild and laboratory bred can be infected with L. tropica by feeding on oriental sores, and further, that after a certain period of development the artificially infected sandflies contain flagellates which on inoculation into man produce cutaneous leishmaniasis. The development of L. tropica in P. papatasii suggests very strongly that infection in Nature is through the bite of a sandfly, but actual experimental proof of the exit of the flagellates via the proboscis of sandflies has been hitherto lacking.