Bloodmeal-stealing in wild-caught Mepraia spinolai (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), a sylvatic vector of Trypanosoma cruzi

Abstract

1. Blood-feeding bugs in the Triatominae are the vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. Mepraia is a sylvatic genus endemic to Chile that transmits T. cruzi in the wild cycle.

2. Bloodmeal-stealing (or 'cleptohaematophagy') is the stealing of a bloodmeal from one bug's gut by another, usually conspecific bug. Bloodmeal-stealing can result in horizontal transmission of T. cruzi between triatomines; so far, it has been reported only in laboratory-reared bugs.

3. We performed short laboratory experiments to test whether bloodmeal-stealing occurs between wild-caught Mepraia spinolai nymphs. Successful bloodmeal-stealing was observed in one out of 17 trials (2/102 bugs). Even though bloodmeal-stealing was not frequent in wild-caught M. spinolai, this behaviour might contribute to explaining the maintenance of wild T. cruzi cycles.