Aspects related to hatching, time-lapse between presenting the blood meal and
beginning of feeding, feeding time, postfeed defecation delay, life time, mortality
and fecundity for each stage of
Meccus picturatus
, life-cycle were evaluated and compared in two cohorts of
M. picturatus
fed on hens or rabbits. The hatching rate observed for each of the two studied
groups of eggs was 78.1% (n = 2298) on the group fed on hens and 82.1% (n =
2704) on that fed on rabbits, and the average time of hatching was 20 days.
Mean time-lapse for beginning feeding was under 3 min in nymphal stages and
postfeed defecation delay was under 10 min in all stages, in both cohorts.
Mean feeding time was significantly (P
<
0.05) shorter in triatomines fed on hens than on rabbits. A similar number
of nymphs of each cohort, 69 fed on hens (34.5%) and 68 fed on rabbits (34%),
completed the cycle. No significantly (P
>
0.05) differences were recorded among the average times from NI to adult in
the cohort fed on hens (196.8
±
15.8 days) and the average time in the cohort fed on rabbits (189.5
±
22.9). The average span in days for each stage fed on hens was not significantly
different to the average span for each stage fed on rabbits. The number of
blood meals at each nymphal stage varied from 1 to 6 in both cohorts. The mortality
rates were higher on fifth nymphal stage, in both cohorts. No significant (P
>
0.05) differences were recorded on mortality rates on most nymphal stages of
both cohorts. The average number of eggs laid per female from the cohort fed
on hens in a 9-month period was 791.1, whereas the average number of eggs in
the cohort fed on rabbits was 928.3.
