[1] The genus, named after Adolfo Lutz, is known from the extinct Burdigalian (20–15 mya) species Lutzomyia adiketis found as a fossil in Dominican amber on the island of Hispaniola.

[3] It is thought that species in the genus Lutzomyia all originated in the lowland forests to the east of the Andes mountain range, and that their radiation throughout the Neotropics was sparked by dry periods of the Pleistocene, driving colonisation further north and west to areas of higher humidity and leading to reproductive isolation.

Research has begun in an attempt to resolve evolutionary relationships between species in the genus, using molecular methods to create phylogenies based on ribosomal DNA sequences.

[1] The resting behaviour of Lutzomyia sand flies, like many other aspects of their biology, is important to understand for targeted, vector-based control methods to reduce transmission of Leishmaniasis.

[5] The sand fly genus Lutzomyia includes all species responsible for transmission, in the New World, of the Leishmania parasite, the causative agent of leishmaniasis.

[8] The human-sand fly-human cycle of transmission, known as anthroponotic, is limited to two Leishmania species endemic in the Old World and so does not involve Lutzomyia sand flies.

Lutzomyia sand flies transmit the disease in the tropics and subtropics, regions which are subject to high levels of deforestation associated with continual development.

Deforestation, with the establishment of settlements at the periphery of primary or secondary forest, increases the risk of Leishmania transmission by creating a selection pressure for the adaptation of sand flies to these new peridomestic environments.

Increased urbanisation, driven by climate change and socio-economic factors, is bringing the adapting sand flies into closer contact with both humans and the domestic canine reservoirs of the disease.

The disease is transmitted by the sand fly species Lutzomyia verracarum, as well as lice and fleas, and is found in areas of Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.