Three behaviours of epidemiological importance, namely feeding latency, feeding duration and defecation latency, for six populations of Meccus phyllosomus longipennis (Usinger) from areas of central, western and north-central Mexico with high (HP) and low (LP) prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas) human infection were evaluated in this study. The median feeding latency (the time taken to begin feeding) was highly variable between instars. Within-instar comparisons showed that at least 65% of the LP populations (N3 to adult) started to feed significantly (P < 0.05) later than the HP population, with N1 showing no difference, and N2 from LP populations feeding sooner than those from HP populations. The six populations had similar median feeding durations within instars. A higher (P < 0.05) percentage of the instars from HP populations defecated faster than the respective instars from the three LP populations. Approximately 25% of the young nymphs (N1 to N3) and females in the HP populations defecated < 2 min post-feeding, compared with 4%-6% of the young nymphs and 1.3%-3% of females in the LP populations. Moreover, 17.7%-38.8% of the older nymphs (N4 to N5) in the HP populations and 6.8%-13.4% in the LP populations defecated during or immediately after feeding. Our results indicate that the HP populations have a greater potential than the LP populations to transmit T. cruzi infections, which may underlie the differences in the prevalence of T. cruzi infection in some areas where M. p. longipennis is currently distributed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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来自人类感染克氏锥虫高发和低发地区的六种长叶螟（异翅目：红翅目）种群的行为参数

来自墨西哥中部、西部和中北部地区具有高 (HP) 和低 (LP) 锥虫流行率的六种 Meccus phyllosomus longipennis (Usinger) 种群的三种具有流行病学重要性的行为，即进食潜伏期、进食持续时间和排便潜伏期本研究评估了 cruzi (Chagas) 人类感染。中位喂养延迟（开始喂养所需的时间）在不同龄期之间变化很大。龄内比较表明，至少 65% 的 LP 种群（N3 到成年）开始进食的时间明显晚于 HP 种群（P < 0.05），其中 N1 没有显示差异，而来自 LP 种群的 N2 比 LP 种群的 N2 更早开始进食。 HP 人群。六个种群在龄内具有相似的中位摄食持续时间。较高（P < 0。05) HP 群体的龄期比三个 LP 群体的各个龄期排便快的百分比。HP 种群中大约 25% 的年轻若虫（N1 到 N3）和雌性在进食后 2 分钟内排便，而 LP 种群中的年轻若虫和雌性分别为 4%-6% 和 1.3%-3%。此外，HP 种群中 17.7%-38.8% 的老年若虫（N4 至 N5）和 LP 种群中 6.8%-13.4% 的老若虫在进食期间或进食后立即排便。我们的结果表明，HP 种群比 LP 种群具有更大的传播 T. cruzi 感染的潜力，这可能是 M. p. 的某些地区 T. cruzi 感染流行率差异的基础。longipennis 目前已分发。本文受版权保护。版权所有。