The palm tree Copernicia cerifera (carnaúba) as an ecotope of Rhodnius nasutus in rural areas of the State of Piauí Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The C. cerifera palm tree (carnaúba) is widely distributed in the Northeastem Brazil, including the State of Piauí. This investigation revealed that R. nasutus is the ortly triatomine species captured on that palm tree, in five different localities. 78% of palm trees were infested with triatomines, and 4.0% were infected with flagellates morphologically and biologically indistinguishable from Trypanosoma cruzi. Birds, rodents and marsupials were found as major blood meai sources for R. nasutus.

Epidemiology of Chagas disease in Jaguaruana, Ceará, Brazil. I. Presence of triatomines and index of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in four localities of a rural area

“…The global average obtained from the 4 localities was 25%. This number is quite above the percentage found by Pinto and Bento (1986), who obtained the average infection of 4% for the specimens captured in the same ecotope, in the rural area of Piauí (PI). On the other hand, Bento et al (1984), who performed a work in the urban area of Teresina (PI), also registered a high infection index (26.2%) of this species.…”

Geographic Distribution of Chagas Disease Vectors in Brazil Based on Ecological Niche Modeling

“…Rhodnius nasutus is found predominantly in Caatinga in the Northeast inhabiting palm trees of the species Copernicia prunifera [114, 115]. Nonetheless, R. nasutus may also occur in other palms and trees in the Caatinga [53, 116].…”

Ecological niche modelling and differentiation between Rhodnius neglectus Lent, 1954 and Rhodnius nasutus Stål, 1859 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) in Brazil

“…R. nasutus occurs mainly in the carnauba wax palm Copernicia prunifera (Mill.) HE Moore, where it feeds mainly on birds (Lent & Wygodzinsky 1979, Pinto & Bento 1986, Carcavallo et al 1998, Sarquis et al 2004). However, R. nasutus inhabits other palm tree species such as Attalea speciosa Mart.…”

“…Occurrence records for R. nasutus and R. neglectus -The distributional data for R. nasutus were obtained from Lent (1948), Lent (1954), Lucena and Lima-Borba (1977), Lent and Wygodzinsky (1979), Silveira et al (1984), Pinto and Bento (1986), Carcavallo et al (1999), Galvão et al (2003), Sarquis et al (2004), Dias et al (2008), Lima and Sarquis (2008) and Abad-Franch et al (2009). Distributional data for R. neglectus were obtained from Gurgel-Gonçalves and Cuba (2009).…”