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Host Availability Limits Population Density of Panstrongylus Megistus^*

Joseph Piesman, Italo A. Sherlock AND Howard A. Christensen

Department of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, C Pq G M, Rua Waldemar Falção, 121, Brotas 40.000, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Apartado 6991, Panama 5, Republic of Panama

In order to determine whether host availability limits triatomine population growth, 5th-stage Panstrongylus megistus were maintained in feeding chambers containing 0, 1, 2, or 3 mice. During the 5-day feeding period, triatomines exposed to two or three mice gained significantly more weight than did bugs exposed to one mouse. In addition, half of the bugs exposed to two or three mice molted, as compared to one-fifth of the P. megistus exposed to one mouse. Thus, weight gain and molting were related to host density. In contrast, bug mortality was related to the triatomine-mouse ratio, being greatest among bugs exposed to one mouse. Twenty-nine nonplastered mud-stick houses in a Chagas' disease endemic area were censused and examined for triatomines. About 70% of houses with 4 persons contained dense bug populations, while only 20% of houses with 1–3 persons were densely infested. Moreover, blood-meal identifications demonstrated that two-thirds of the P. megistus collected from these houses fed on man. The density of triatomines present in infested houses is related to the number of persons available as hosts.

Accepted for publication April 15, 1983.

^* The Harvard component, under the direction of Dr. Thomas H. Weller, is supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust, and NIH Grant No. AI16305-04; its collaborative activities in Brazil are under the aegis of the Pan American Health Organization.

The Gorgas Memorial Laboratory Arthropod Blood-Meal Identification Regional Reference Center receives financial support from the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.