Similarity of the patterns of sensilla on the antennae of Triatoma melanosoma and Triatoma infestans

Abstract

The patterns of sensilla on the antennae of sylvatic Triatoma melanosoma Lent, Jurberg, Galvao and Carcavallo 1994 were compared with those of three samples of Triatoma infestans (Klug 1834) - one of domestic populations in Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, one of the sylvatic 'dark morph' from the Bolivian Chaco, and one from sylvatic sites in the Cochabamba region of Bolivia. The results of multivariate analysis indicated that, in terms of their antennal sensilla, the T. melanosoma and the 'dark morph' of T. infestans were more similar to the domestic T. infestans than to the sylvatic T. infestans from Cochabamba. As in previous molecular and genetic studies, there was no evidence to indicate that the bugs identified as T. melanosoma and those identified as T. infestans belonged to different species. The taxonomic position of T. melanosoma should therefore be reconsidered.

Genomic Changes of Chagas Disease Vector, South America

“…This latter hypothesis was based on the discovery of sylvatic melanic forms of T. infestans (“dark morph”) in the Bolivian Chaco ( 22 ). However, the proposal of the dark morph as the original T. infestans population was not supported by body size measurements ( 23 ), antennal sensilla patterns ( 24 ), or isoenzymatic and mitochondrial data ( 14 ). Furthermore, cytogenetic results indicated that in dark morph specimens heterochromatin is restricted to three autosomal pairs ( 25 and Table 2) and low DNA content (Table 3), suggesting their close relationship with our non-Andean chromosomal group.…”

The Olfactory Chemosensation of Hematophagous Hemipteran Insects

“…Triatoma males have trichoidea sensilla that are significantly more thin-walled than those of the females, especially on the pedicel segment (Catalá et al, 2004;Villela et al, 2005;May-Concha et al, 2016), whilst the number of thin-walled trichoidea sensilla in the Rhodnius species exhibit no difference between the sexes (Catalá et al, 2004;Villacís et al, 2010). Interestingly, T. infestans collected from domestic sites have more thin-walled trichoidea sensilla on the pedicel and more thick-walled trichoidea sensillum on both flagellomere I and II than those collected from sylvan sites (Catalá and Dujardin, 2001;Catalá and Torres, 2001) with the specific mechanism yet to be determined.…”