Biology of Triatoma nitida Usinger, 1939 under Laboratory
Conditions -Triatoma nitida is a wild species occurring in
Mexico and Central America. In order to establish the length
of its life cycle and transmission potential, the following
parameters were observed: the incubation period, the interval
between hatching, or moulting, and the first feeding; the
number of blood meals and the time of development. The
time-lapse before the bite, the length of feeding and the
interval between the end of the blood meal and defecation, as
well as the site of defecation were also analyzed. Average
length of the egg incubation period was 18.2 days. Time
interval between the food source offering and the bite was
less than 4 min in 60% of the analyzed cases, except in the
fifth instar, where only 38% of the insects began feeding in
less than 5 min. The blood-sucking period was long and rising
until the fifth instar , decreasing in adults, and ranging
from 1 min to 2 and a half hours. Only 26% of the blood meals
were followed by defecations within 20 min. The average length
of the life cycle was 897.5 days.
