Insects · Hemiptera · Reduviidae

Kissing Bug

Triatoma infestans

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

Triatoma infestans is a heteropteran insect of the family Reduviidae. It is a blood feeder and is considered one of the vectors responsible for transmitting the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, which can cause Chagas disease. It is known in Spanish as pito, vinchuca, chichã guazú, chipo, chirimacha, lavandera, chinchorro and chinche besucona in Mexico, as well as barbeiro, palança and percevejo-do-sertão in Brazil, among other colloquial names it shares with other triatomine species.

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

GrasslandCarnivore Nocturnal Solitary Insect Grassland

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Fun facts

It is the main vector of Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas disease, and at one point accounted for more than half of all vector-borne cases in the Americas.
It does not pass on the parasite when it bites but in its faeces: it defecates on the skin while feeding, and the person inoculates themselves by scratching.
The Southern Cone Initiative, launched in 1991 by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, focused on eliminating it from houses; Uruguay declared itself free of vector-borne transmission in 1997, Chile in 1999 and Brazil in 2006.
Darwin described it in his Beagle diary on 26 March 1835, after being bitten on the pampas by what he called the benchuca, the great black bug of the Pampas.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)
Habitat & environment: Cracks in the walls and roofs of rural houses and their outbuildings — hen houses, corrals — in the South American Southern Cone; there are also wild populations in the Bolivian Andes

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triatoma_infestans