Journal of Medical Entomology Advance Access published September 28, 2016 Journal of Medical Entomology, 2016, 1–9 doi: 10.1093/jme/tjw147 Modeling/GIS, Risk Assessment, Economic Impact Research article Spatial Distribution of Phlebotomine Sand Fly Species (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Qom Province, Central Iran Abedin Saghafipour,1,2 Hassan Vatandoost,3 Ali Reza Zahraei-Ramazani,3 Mohammad Reza Yaghoobi-Ershadi,3 Yavar Rassi,3 Mohammad Reza Shirzadi,4 and Amir Ahmad Akhavan3 1Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran (abed.saghafi@ya- hoo.com), 2Corresponding author, e-mail: abed.saghafi@yahoo.com, 3Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (
[email protected]; alirezazahraei@ya- hoo.com;
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected]), and 4Communicable Diseases Management Center, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran (
[email protected]) Downloaded from Received 14 May 2016; Accepted 12 August 2016 Abstract Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is transmitted to humans by phlebotomine sand fly bites. ZCL is a ma- jor health problem in Iran, where basic knowledge gaps about sand fly species diversity persist in some ZCL- http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/ endemic areas. This paper describes the richness and spatial distribution of sand fly species, collected with sticky traps, in Qom province, a ZCL-endemic area in central Iran, where sand fly fauna has been poorly studied. Collected species were mapped on urban and rural digital maps based on a scale of 1/50,000. All analyses were undertaken with rural- and urban-level precision, i.e., rural and urban levels were our basic units of analysis.