Medical and Veterinary Entomology (2010), doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.2010.00912.x Misidentification of two Brazilian triatomes, Triatoma arthurneivai and Triatoma wygodzinskyi, revealed by geometric morphometrics A. L. C A R B A J A L DE LA FUENTE 1 , N. J A R A M I L L O 2 , J. M. S. B A R A T A 3 , F. N O I R E A U 4,5 and L. D I O T A I U T I 6 1 Departamento de Entomologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2 Grupo Biologia y Control de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia, 3 Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Sa´ ude P´ ublica, Universidade de S˜ ao Paulo, S˜ ao Paulo, S˜ ao Paulo, Brazil, 4 UR 016, Institut de Recherche pour le D´ eveloppement (IRD), Montpellier, France, 5 IIBISMED, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Mayor San Sim´ on, Cochabamba, Bolivia and 6 Laborat´ orio de Triatomíneos e Epidemiologia da Doenc ¸a de Chagas, Instituto Ren´ e Rachou, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Abstract. Triatoma arthurneivai Lent & Martins and Triatoma wygodzinskyi Lent (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) are two Brazilian species found in the sylvatic environment. Several authors may have misidentified T. arthurneivai and consequently published erroneous information. This work reports the use of geometric morphometric analysis on wings in order to differentiate T. arthurneivai and T. wygodzinskyi, and thus to detect possible misidentifications. Triatomines collected from the field in the states of Minas Gerais and S˜ ao Paulo, and from laboratory colonies, were used. Analyses show a clear differentiation between specimens of T. arthurneivai and T. wygodzinskyi. This indicates that T. arthurneivai populations from S˜ ao Paulo state were misidentified and should be considered as T. wygodzinskyi. This study also suggests that T. arthurneivai is an endemic species from Serra do Cip´ o, Minas Gerais state. Key words. Triatoma arthurneivai, Triatoma wygodzinskyi, geometric morphometrics, sylvatic triatomines, Brazil. Introduction During the last decade, the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (MG) has pioneered research on Triatominae and numerous collection campaigns have been carried out as part of epidemiological studies of malaria and Chagas’ disease (Lent & Martins, 1940; Martins, 1941; Pellegrino, 1948, 1950, 1951; Lent, 1951). During these studies, two species, Triatoma arthurneivai Lent & Martins, 1940 and Triatoma wygodzinskyi Lent, 1951, have been described, but have received scarce attention because of their limited epidemiological importance as vectors of Chagas’ disease (Martins, 1941; Pellegrino, 1948, 1950, 1951). Triatoma arthurneivai was described from one female collected in Serra do Cip´ o, MG (Lent & Martins, 1940). Correspondence: Dr A. L. Carbajal de la Fuente, Departamento de Entomologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Avenida Brasil 4365, Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21045-900, Brazil. Tel.: +55 21 25 98 43 20; Fax: +55 21 25 73 44 68; E-mail: carbajal@ioc.fiocruz.br Ten years later, Pellegrino (1950) recorded this species from Santa Rita de Caldas, in the south of MG. The five specimens collected by Pellegrino were sent to H. Lent for confirmation of the identification. Lent (1951) observed that Pellegrino’s specimens belonged to a new species and described them as T. wygodzinskyi. However, Lent (1951) has subsequently been overlooked by several authors (Corrˆ ea et al., 1962, 1965; Pinto Alves & Noda, 1964; Forattini et al., 1968, 1972; Juarez et al., 1970; Barretto & Ribeiro, 1981; Rosa et al., 2005; Bargues et al., 2008), who identified the triatomines collected from different localities in both southern MG and the state of S˜ ao Paulo (SP) as T. arthurneivai. Taxonomic identification then followed the traditional con- cepts established by Lent & Wygodzinsky (1979), based mainly on morphological characters. Both species are very  2010 The Authors Medical and Veterinary Entomology  2010 The Royal Entomological Society 1