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macro- and microenvironments. For laboratory colonization, a rearing 

 temperature of 27 + 1°C appears to be about optimal for Lu. diabolica . 

 Further rearings at temperatures above 27°C and below 24°C should be 

 conducted to determine the critical temeperature range for immature 

 development. 



Ki 1 1 ick-Kendrick (1978) listed excessive larval mortality, due to 

 fungal growth, improper diet or moisture, disease or other factors, as 

 an outstanding problem inhibiting progress in sand fly rearing. Since 

 larvae live on or in their food material, one must conclude that these 

 mortality factors are directly related to the diet medium. 



Lindquist (1936) attempted to rear j_u. diabol ica larvae on soil 

 containing considerable organic matter and on chicken and rabbit 

 feces, but on both diets the larvae died before pupation. When he 

 used moistened soil containing less organic matter and supplemented it 

 with the tissue of dead flies ( Sarcophaga , Cochl iomyia , Lucil ia , and 

 Musca ) he successfully reared larvae through the adult stage in 16 to 

 27 days with an average of 18.5 days. These times are considerably 

 shorter than those observed for laboratory generations fed the 

 standard sand fly larval diet (Table 3-3). This diet consists of 

 equal parts of laboratory-rabbit chow and rabbit feces, ground, mixed, 

 moistened, and then cured for about one month. It has been used for 

 rearing at least nine sand fly species (both Old and New World) with 

 good success (Endris e_t aj_., 1982). 



As the results of the larval diet experiments (Table 3-5) show, 

 diet A was a vast improvement over the standard diet regimen, diet E. 

 These diets differed only in particle size (A, fine; E, coarse) and 

 moisture content (A, dry, E, moist), yet development times under A 



