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.