Abstract
Objective: Conduct a survey of articles on the eating habits and behavior of sandflies in Brazil. Methods: Papers on the topic were chosen from the National Library of Medicine (NIH-PubMed) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases, using the keywords “feeding preference”; “sandflies”, “blood food sources” and “feeding behavior”. From the 290 studies evaluated, 20 were chosen after analyzing the inclusion criteria. Results: The year that included the majority of published articles was 2005, when it was possible to observe different types of tests, both genetic and immunoenzymatic. The most common food sources identified were: birds, opossums, rodents, humans, horses, dogs, cattle and cats Final Considerations: It was possible to observe that there are several methods to identify the blood source for sandflies. In addition, there is evidence that there is a preference for insects to feed on animals the live close to humans. Thus, it is expected that public health policies should be developed to carry out a more rigorous control of adult sandflies. This work will also help researchers to define a more specialized collection dynamic, resolving any limitations that may arise in this type of research.