Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Triatoma - Bloodsucking Conenoses

6026614 Triatoma - Triatoma rubida Blood-sucking Conenose - Triatoma lecticularia Triatoma protracta Probably Triatoma protracta - Triatoma protracta Kissing bug? - Triatoma sanguisuga Female, Triatoma protracta? - Triatoma protracta - female Assassin bug - Triatoma protracta Florida  Assassin - Triatoma sanguisuga
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Infraorder Cimicomorpha
Family Reduviidae (Assassin Bugs)
Subfamily Triatominae (Kissing Bugs)
Genus Triatoma (Bloodsucking Conenoses)
Other Common Names
Kissing Bugs, Big Bed Bugs, Mexican Bed Bugs, Bellows Bugs, Vinchuca
Explanation of Names
Triatoma Laporte de Castelnau 1833
Numbers
11 spp. in our area(1), 76 total(2)
Size
13‒33 mm
Identification
Key to species in(3)
Range
so. US (transcontinental) to Argentina; in our area, T. sanguisuga and T. lecticularia in the East, T. rubrofasciata an isolated introduction in FL, others sw US(1)
Habitat
Generally nidicolous, occurring most often in rodent nests but also in bird nests, logs and man-made structures such as barns, coops, houses; some Neotropical spp. also in caves
Season
All year, but more frequently seen in spring and fall when dispersing and coming to lights
Food
Tetrapod blood, mostly mammalian. The most common wild hosts are wood rats (Neotoma) but other common ones include armadillos, opossums and raccoons (possibly also skunks); synanthropic species may feed on livestock (horses, cattle, chickens), pets, humans, and lizards around homes
Life Cycle
After a meal, female scatters many oval whitish eggs; nymphs pass through eight instars and take up to 2‒3 years to complete the cycle
Remarks
Bite can cause severe allergic reaction. Bite and defecation into bite can transmit Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The North American species can carry the parasite but they do not normally defecate at the site of bite, and thus rarely transmit the disease (Vetter 2001). Rare vector-borne cases of Chagas occur in the so. US (CDC 2013).
Print References
(4)
Works Cited
1.Catalog of the Heteroptera, or True Bugs of Canada and the Continental United States
Thomas J. Henry, Richard C. Froeschner. 1988. Brill Academic Publishers.
2.BioLib.cz
3.Revision of the Triatominae (Hemiptera, Reduviidae), and their significance as vectors of Chagas' disease
H. Lent & P. Wygodzinsky. 1979. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 163: 1-520.
4.A checklist of the current valid species of the subfamily Triatominae Jeannel, 1919 (Hemiptera, Reduviidae)…
Galvão C., Carcavallo R., da Silva Rorcha D., Jurberg J. 2004. Zootaxa 202: 1‒36.