Trypanosomatidae Isolated from Zelus leucogrammus (Perty, 1834) (Hemiptera, Reduviidae), with a Discussion on Flagellates of Insectivorous Bugs*

SYNOPSIS The insectivorous bug Zelus leucogrammus (Perty, 1834) (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) was found to harbor several species of trypanosomatids of the genera Leptomonas, Crithidia, Herpetomonas and Blastocrithidia. However, laboratory bred nymphs given sterile food were infected only by Blastocrithidia, the other flagellates appearing in their intestinal tract when they were fed on other insects. The Blastocrithidia was thought to belong to a single species and to be a parasite proper of Z. leucogrammus (and possibly other Hemiptera), producing luxuriant infections in the intestinal tract of the bugs captured in nature and spreading easily among isolated populations through cannibalism and ingestion of cysts; it was also abundant in the genital tract of gravid females but transovarian transmission was not proved. This Blastocrithidia experimentally infected Triatoma infestans and is very close to B. triatomae Cerisola, del Prado, Rohwedder and Bozzini, 1971. The other trypanosomatids, never numerous in naturally infected Z. leucogrammus, are acquired by the bug from many different insects, chiefly Diptera, on which it was seen to feed. Herpetomonas muscarum and C. luciliae, the common trypanosomatids among several muscoid Diptera, were isolated both from flies and from the bugs fed on them.