''Dipetalogaster'', a genus of

Triatominae The members of the Triatominae , a subfamily of the Reduviidae, are also known as conenose bugs, kissing bugs (so-called from their habit of feeding from around the mouths of people), or vampire bugs. Other local names for them used in The Ameri ...

, the kissing bugs, has only a single species, ''Dipetalogaster maxima'' (often misspelled as "''maximus''", e.g.), which is found in the Mexican state of

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur (; 'South Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California Sur), is the least populated state and the 31st admitted state of the 32 federal ent ...

. Originally the

blood-sucking Hematophagy (sometimes spelled haematophagy or hematophagia) is the practice by certain animals of feeding on blood (from the Greek words αἷμα ' "blood" and φαγεῖν ' "to eat"). Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious pr ...

''Dipetalogaster'' lived in crevices in rocks where it typically fed on lizards, but following human growth in its range it now also commonly feeds on humans and domestic animals. ''Dipetalogaster'' is routinely infected by the

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by ''Trypanosoma cruzi''. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily ''Triatominae'', known as "kissing bugs". The symptoms change over the cou ...

parasite ''

Trypanosoma cruzi ''Trypanosoma cruzi'' is a species of parasitic euglenoids. Among the protozoa, the trypanosomes characteristically bore tissue in another organism and feed on blood (primarily) and also lymph. This behaviour causes disease or the likelihood of ...

''. In contrast to this risk, laboratory kept ''Dipetalogaster'' can be used for extracting blood samples from animals where other methods are stressful or risky (such as certain zoo animals and wild animals). The bite of ''Dipetalogaster'' is essentially painless because of the very thin mouthpart apparatus (about , far less than a typical

hypodermic needle A hypodermic needle (from Greek ὑπο- (''hypo-'' = under), and δέρμα (''derma'' = skin)), one of a category of medical tools which enter the skin, called sharps, is a very thin, hollow tube with one sharp tip. It is commonly used w ...

) and the anaesthetic effect of its saliva. The blood can be extracted from the ''Dipetalogaster'' without killing it and with few exceptions (such as

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...

and

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...

) show no differences compared to blood extracted using conventional methods. At up to in length, ''Dipetalogaster'' is the largest species of the subfamily, but otherwise it resembles the better-known ''

Rhodnius prolixus ''Rhodnius prolixus'' is the principal triatomine vector of the Chagas parasite due to both its sylvatic and domestic populations in northern South America as well as to its exclusively domestic populations in Central America. It has a wide ran ...

''.

Notes

References

* * Reduviidae Monotypic Hemiptera genera Insects of North America {{Cimicomorpha-stub