Triatoma vitticeps (Stål, 1859)

Galvão, Cleber, Gil-Santana, Hélcio R. & Oliveira, Jader de, 2024, The taxonomic catalog of the Brazilian fauna: biodiversity and geographical distribution of Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in Brazil, Zoologia (e 24006) 41, pp. 1-28 : 15

Triatoma vitticeps (Stål, 1859)

Fig. 13

Distribution. Bahia, EspÍrito Santo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.

Public health importance. Triatoma vitticeps is a sylvatic species associated with rodent and opossum ( Lent and Wygodzinsky 1979) and can be found frequently in peridomiciliar and occasionally in domiciliar environments. Although it has high rate of natural infection with T. cruzi ( Dias et al. 1989, Santos et al. 2006) and it is in the domiciliation process ( Moreira and Spata 2002), this species has low vector potential, due principally to the relatively long interval between feeding and defecation ( Santos et al. 2006). It has been of secondary importance in T. cruzi transmission to man ( Dias et al. 1989, Santos et al. 2005).

Remarks. The life cycle ( Gonçalves et al. 1988), feeding and defection behaviours ( Gonçalves et al. 2000, Santos et al. 2006), and starvation ability (Gonçalves et al. 1989, Moreira and Spata 2002) of this species have been studied under laboratory condition. The experimental parasitism of eggs of this species by Aprostocetus asthenogmus has been reported by Santos et al. (2014).