First finding of melanic sylvatic Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) colonies in the Argentine Chaco.

ABSTRACT: Triatoma infestans (Klug), the most important vector of Chagas disease in southern South America, is a highly domiciliated species with well-known sylvatic foci only in the Bolivian Andean valleys and in the Bolivian Chaco, where melanic insects designated as "dark morphs" were found. After the tentative identification of two melanic bugs collected from parrot nests in a forest reserve in the Argentine Chaco as T. infestans, we conducted an intensive search there using mouse-baited sticky traps in summer 2006 and 2007. Four live T. infestans bugs were collected in trees without parrot nests in 288 trap-nights, whereas no bug was collected from inside trees with active parrot nests in 51 trap-nights. To increase bug captures, hollow tree trunks that recently had had Amazona aestiva (Berleps

SUBMITTER: Ceballos LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2782367 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature