Abstract
The identification of sand fly species is important for prediction of disease risks. A method of typing Sergentomyia and Phlebotomus tuna in three areas in Saudi Arabia was investigated by establishing a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct partial sequence of 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene using specific designed primers. Morphological investigation of adults sand fly showed that Phlebotomine flies are identified into five species, three of them belong to genus Phlebotomus (P. papatasi, P. bergeroti, P. sergenti), and two belong to genus Sergentomyia (S. antennata and S. clydei). Several direct PCR amplified sequences of each species analyzed using Maximum Composite Likelihood (MCL), Neighbor-Joining (NJ) and MEGA 5 methods revealed phylogenetic relationships of taxa. The obtained data of 18S subunits of rRNA gene showed moderate degree of interspecific variability between species of the same genus and among species of different genera. These results provide a powerful tool for further molecular retyping of Phlebotomus and Sergentomyia species in endemic areas of Saudi Arabia which may help planning for appropriate epidemiological surveillance programs that could be used to detect natural infections of sand fly vectors with pathogens, and hence, designing the appropriate control measure that limit spreading of such serious vectors.