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studies were carried out at the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in Panama 

 that they were proven to be Leishmania (Hertig and McConnell, 1963; 

 Johnson et ah , 1963). After many years of patient work, these 

 researchers found natural promastigote infections in more than 400 

 man-biting Panamanian sand flies and incriminated three species, 

 Lu. trapidoi (Fairchild and Hertig), Lu. ylephiletor (Fairchild and 

 Hertig) and _Lu. gomezi (Nitz.) as vectors of Panamanian cutaneous 

 leishmaniasis, L brazil iensis panamensis (Johnson ^t aj_., 1963). 

 Christensen et aj_. (1969) also found Lu. panamensis infected with 

 promastigotes, but there is some question as to the identity of those 

 promastigotes. Lainson (1982) believed that some of these infections 

 were due either to Endotrypanum (a blood parasite of sloths which also 

 develops as promastigotes in sand flies) or to nonhuman Leishmania , 

 such as Lu_. hertigi of porcupines. 



McConnell (1963) cultured flagellates from wi ld-caught sand flies 

 and determined, without question, that Lu. trapidoi harbored 

 promastigotes of L b. panamensis . Furthermore, the observation that 

 Lu . trapidoi is largely arboreal led to the incrimination of sloths as 

 the major reservoir of L brazi 1 iensis panamensis (Lainson, 1982). 



Leishmania brazil iensis guyanensis ("pian-bios"). In Surinam, 

 Wijers and Linger (1966) caught large numbers of anthropophil ic sand 

 flies off human bait in areas where "pian-bois," due to Lb. 

 guyanensis , is endemic. The most common species recorded was 

 Lu . squamiventris (Lutz and Neiva), but all dissections of this species 

 proved negative for leishmaniae. Numerous promastigote infections 

 were found in dissections of another species, "L_u. anduzei ," found 

 resting on tree trunks. Their "anduzei" probably represented 



