1911 © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. Development, Life History Characterization of Feeding Behavior and its Relationship With the Longevity of Wild and Peridomestic Triatoma dimidiata, Latreille 1811 (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) Under Laboratory Conditions Juan Carlos Marín-Ortiz, 1 Gabriel Parra-Henao, 2,3,6 Mariano Altamiranda-Saavedra, 4, and Nicolás Jaramillo-O 5 1 Grupo de Investigación Fitotecnia Tropical, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia, 2 Centro de Investigación en Salud para el Trópico (CIST), Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Santa Marta, Colombia, 3 National Institute of Health, Bogotá, Colombia, 4 Grupo de Investigación Bioforense, Tecnológico de Antioquia, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia, 5 Instituto de Biología, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia, and 6 Corresponding author, e-mail: gabriel.parra@ucc.edu.co Subject Editor: Gabriel Hamer Received 3 March 2022; Editorial decision 26 July 2022. Abstract Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille 1811) is considered the second most important vector of the Trypanosa cruzi eti- ological agent of Chagas disease in Colombia. It has a life cycle that involves a domiciled, peridomiciled, and wild distribution. The study of feeding behavior and its influence on the survival of sylvatic and peridomestic populations can help identify a possible differential risk in the transmission of Chagas disease to humans, mainly in northwestern and east-central Colombia. We characterize the main parameters of feeding be- havior and their influence on the longevity and survival of two rat-fed populations of T. dimidiata from Colombia, one in the north-west (from palms in a tropical dry forest area) and the other in the center-east (peridomiciliated), under controlled environmental conditions. The palm population took considerably longer than the peridomestic population to complete its life cycle under experimental laboratory conditions, being both populations univoltine since they have only one life cycle per year. Statistically significant differences were evidenced using Box-Cox model between the survival rates of T. dimidiata populations when the parameters related to blood intake and behavior were incorporated, in contrast to the survival models in which the origin only was considered as a factor. Our results could be used to generate recommendations to guide prevention strategies in communities near sylvatic and peridomiciliated populations of T. dimidiata. Key words: Chagas disease, survival, wild population, Colombia Triatoma dimidiata Latreille, 1811 (Reduviidae: Triatominae) is distributed from southern Mexico throughout Central America and into some countries in northern South America, including Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and northern Peru (Zeledón 1970a, Lent and Wygodzinsky 1979, Acevedo et al. 2000, Angulo 2005). In Colombia, T. dimidiata has been reported in 13 departments and is considered the second most important vector of Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease, after Rhodnius prolixus Stal, 1859 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) (Corredor et al.1990). This species mainly inhabits rural areas and houses in the munic- ipal peripheries and has a very complex life cycle involving sylvatic, peridomestic, and domiciliary distribution (Angulo 2005). Although its origin in Colombia is still not very clear, there are two hypotheses that may explain how this species entered the country: 1) radiation by land of a Central American lineage into the South, which gave rise to the three continental subspecies of the complex (Triatoma dimidiata maculipennis, Triatoma a dimidiata, and Triatoma dimidiata capitata) (Bargues et al. 2008), mainly by active dispersal (Quirós- Gómez et al. 2017) from the original wild and domicile populations of T. dimidiata from the Yucatán peninsula (Lehmann et al. 2005). This hypothesis proposes the existence of palm populations, very similar to those present in Central America, mainly in Panama and Journal of Medical Entomology, 59(6), 2022, 1911–1920 https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjac122 Advance Access Publication Date: 18 August 2022 Research Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/59/6/1911/6671275 by guest on 10 January 2024