The Visual World of Kissing Bugs (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae): How and When Do They Rely on Vision?

TOMÁS MANUEL CHIALINA; SEBASTIÁN ANTONIO MINOLI; MARTÍN BERÓN DE ASTRADA

San José

Congreso; Animal Behavior Society 59th Annual Conference; 2022

The Animal Behavior Society

Kissing bugs are nocturnal haematophagous insects, responsible for the transmission of Chagas disease in Latin America. Vision and associated behaviors have been feebly studied in these insects, probably due to their nocturnal habits. However, they possess well-developed compound eyes as well as big ocelli, facts that suggest that vision is not a neglected sense in their lives. Despite this, we do not know much about the relevance of vision in their daily life nor about its sensitivity and resolution. Our final aim is to understand how these insects perceive their visual environment and when vision is relevant for them. Working with two species of triatomines, Rhodnius prolixus and Triatoma infestans, we have studied their escape response to a virtual looming object that is manipulated in size, speed, position, color and intensity. We found that animals escape from the visual stimulus by either increasing their walking speed while fixating the object with an angle of 90°-150° from the screen, or freezing. Our results show firstly, that triatomines are highly visually responsive animals and secondly, that the current methodology paves the way to investigate their visual system further.