Leiishman: his biography

[John Bruce Alexander]

Dear Dr. Maher:

I don't have any more information on William Boog Leishman or the date
that "papatasi/papatacci" was first used but when I attended my first
medical entomology lecture on sand flies I remember hearing that the word
"papatacci" came from two words of Sicilian dialect: "papa" = "full" and
"tacci" = "shut up!". I don't know where the lecturer (now deceased) got
this from and have never seen it in print anywhere. Supposedly the insects
could be heard before they took a blood meal but after they engorged the
wing beat frequency changed to something inaudible to the human ear, hence
the name. I later found that sand flies are always silent, but assume that
the belief that the above was true had something to do with the name of
the fever and hence the sand fly. Any Italian (especially Sicilian)
correspondents might be able to clear this up.    

Bruce Alexander 
Professor Visitante ICB-UFMG
Belo Horizonte MG-Brazil