الفهرس 
Literature ReviewOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The present study aimed to study the feeding habitat of sand fly P. papatasi and the time taken by females to take blood meal depend on different hosts, the effect of different blood meals on some biological parameters and the gut histological changes during digestion process.
1- Effect of different blood meals on feeding time:
The feeding time of P. papatasi was longest on BALB/c mice, followed by hamster, then pigeon and finally human. There was no significant difference for time taken between females fed on human blood or on pigeon blood. But there were significant differences between females fed on other groups.
2- Effect of different blood meals on oviposition time, fertility, hatching time and hatchability of P. papatasi:
The mean time taken for oviposition was longest when females fed on pigeon then BALB/c mice, human and finally hamster.
The number of eggs laid by females of P. papatasi was high when females fed on hamster and low when females fed on pigeon.
The hatching time for females fed on pigeon had significantly higher value than other groups.
The hamster blood gives highest percentage of hatchability and pigeon blood gives least percentage of hatchability.
3- Development of peritrophic membrane of the females gut during blood digestion:
After blood feeding, peritrophic membrane was rapid formed in P. papatasi then became fully formed and darkened. As the days pass peritrophic membrane lose its dark color then completely absent in all females.
The peritrophic membrane of the female sand fly Phlebotomus papatasi has been studied at various times after blood meals. The membrane begins to form within few hours after the blood meal with the secretion by the entire midgut epithelium. Subsequently, the membrane is stabilized and strengthened around the blood bolus 2 days after blood meal. Breakdown and degradation of the PM was started between the third and fourth day after blood meal. It was not present in any females by day five after blood meal.
Modifications in the midgut size related with the blood ingestion and the digestion time were showed. Immediately after blood ingestion, the midgut reaches its maximum size. Then the midgut volume is reduced to half its size compared with the beginning. At the end of the digestion, the size of the midgut is practically equal to an unfed midgut.
4- Histological studies showing blood meal digestion:
In unfed females, the mid gut was lined with single layer of epithelial cells with central or rounded nuclei, some mitochondria, whorled endoplasmatic reticulum and clear basal labyrinth.
After blood meal intake, as days pass, some histological changes occur to mid gut epithelial cells. The rough endoplasmatic reticulum in the epithelial cells rich in ribosomes was observed, mitochondria distributed throughout the cytoplasm, the nuclei were elongated and filled with clumped chromatin, also huge vacuoles and lipid inclusions are present.