Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), transmitted by the sand fly, Phlebotomus argentipes, is frequently reported on the Indian subcontinent where its basic ecology is largely unknown. Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of sugar solution (10%), containing colored food dye (0.5%) applied to peridomestic vegetation, to mark P. argentipes and subsequently estimate horizontal movement by capturing dye‐marked specimens in CDC light traps in a village in Bihar, India. From September 30 to November 27, 2016, a total of 667 captured sand flies were successfully marked using sugar baits, of which 608 were P. argentipes (~91.2%). Although the majority of P. argentipes were captured <100 m from the respective marking sites, a significantly greater proportion of females (15.7%) was captured >100 m from marking sites when compared to males (3.1%). Sand flies that ingested sugar bait were only collected from areas containing >eight vegetation types and mature banana plants. The average number of marked P. argentipes captured per trap‐night (±SD) <100 m from respective marking sites was greatest in peridomestic vegetation (Males: 0.9 ± 1.97; Females: 0.63 ± 1.44), followed by areas with livestock (Males: 0.66 ± 2.75; Females: 0.24 ± 0.69), and areas with humans only (Males: 0.1 ± 0.36; Females: 0.11 ± 0.31). To our knowledge, this is the only study in Bihar in which sand flies have been marked with food dyes, and the results demonstrate the potential usefulness of food dyes in estimating short‐term movement of P. argentipes. Limitations of this experiment are that the number of each trap location type, vegetation composition at marking sites, and distance of all trap sites from marking sites were not homogenous, and the total number of marked sand flies collected were relatively low. In spite of the above limitations, these data should prove useful in developing a large‐scale study addressing the caveats. Results of such a study could provide important information regarding the dynamics of VL transmission and inspire managers to pursue alternative means of sand fly control on the Indian subcontinent.

中文翻译：

---

印度比哈尔邦内脏利什曼病地方病村落的白僵菌（Phlebotomus argentipes）（双翅目：Psychodidae）的短期运动。

由沙蝇Phlebotomus argentipes传播的内脏利什曼病（VL）在印度次大陆上经常被报道，那里的基本生态基本未知。我们的目标是评估糖溶液（10％）的有效性，该溶液含有彩色食用色素（0.5％）应用于猪场植被，以标记阿根廷扁桃体，随后通过在CDC光阱中捕获染色标记的标本来估计水平运动。印度比哈尔邦的小村庄。从2016年9月30日至11月27日，总共使用糖饵成功地标记了667个捕获的沙蝇，其中608个为阿根廷扁桃体（〜91.2％）。尽管大多数的P. argentipes分别从各个标记点捕获不到100 m的鱼，与男性（3.1％）相比，从标记点捕获超过100 m的雌鱼（占15.7％）的比例要高得多。摄食糖饵的沙蝇仅从包含八种以上植被类型和成熟香蕉植物的地区收集。标记的P. argentipes的平均数距每个标记点的每陷阱夜（±SD）小于100 m的捕获量在腹围植被中最大（男性：0.9±1.97;女性：0.63±1.44），其次是有牲畜的地区（男性：0.66±2.75;女性：0.24 ±0.69），以及仅限人类的区域（男性：0.1±0.36；女性：0.11±0.31）。据我们所知，这是比哈尔邦唯一的一种用食用染料标记沙蝇的研究，结果表明食用染料在估计白粉虱的短期运动中的潜在用途。。该实验的局限性在于每个诱集装置位置类型的数量，标记处的植被组成以及所有诱集装置到标记处的距离都不均匀，并且收集到的带标记的沙蝇总数相对较低。尽管存在上述局限性，但这些数据在开发应对警告的大规模研究中应被证明是有用的。这项研究的结果可以提供有关VL传播动力学的重要信息，并激发管理者在印度次大陆上寻求替代性的沙蝇控制手段。