ABSTRACT
Triatomine bugs are hemimetabolous insects with piercing/sucking mouth parts. They belong to the order Hemiptera which consists of two sub orders, Homoptera and Heteroptera. All Homopteran and many Heteropteran bugs feed on plant fl uids. Some Heteropterans are predaceous, feeding on the body fl uids of other arthropods and vertebrates. Two families of the latter sub order contain blood sucking insects. One of them, the Cimicidae, or the bed bug family, are all hematophagous. The other, the Reduviidae, is commonly known as the assassin bug family. Most Reduviidae are predators of other insects, but the subfamily, the Triatominae, have adapted to feed on vertebrate blood. There are more than 140 known species of Triatominae, R. prolixus and T. dimidiata being two of them.
