Monthly catches were carried out during five days/month in the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve (Manaus, Amazonas), from February 1990 to January 1991 in order to assess the sandfly fauna of that region, evaluate the atractivity of these insects with regard to different kinds of traps and baits and to know vertical stratification of these insects. The traps and baits used in catches were: Disney traps with baits: Didelphis sp., Gallus sp. and Mesocricetus sp.; CDC light traps at three vertical levels (1m, 5m and 10m); Suspended trap (5m) and Malaise trap (1m) and catches on bases of tree-trunks. The most efficient type was the CDC. Malaise and Suspended did not collect specimens of Culicoides Latreille, 1809. The Disney traps with baits only attracted specimens of C. fusipalpis Wirth & Blanton, 1973. In vertical stratification, the CDC trap placed at 1m caught 898 specimens of nine species; at 5m 895 specimens were collected which belonged to 13 species; and at 10m 224 specimens of 14 species were collected. Two thousand and forty-six specimens of Culicoides were captured, being about 5,66% males and 94,34% females, which belonged to 17 different species; the most frequent were C. fusipalpis (43,05%), followed by C. pseudodiabolicus Fox, 1946 (32,79%), C. hylas Macfie, 1940 (12,31%) and C. foxi Ortiz, 1950 (3,71%). The other 13 species totalized 8,15%.
Diptera; Caratopogonidae; Culicoides; traps and baits; vertical stratification; Amazon