REDUVIIDAE

Because of their roles as vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas’ disease, species in the subfamily Triatominae are the most medically important Heteroptera in the New World. Triatominae are occasionally found infected with arboviruses and plague bacilli (Garcia et al. 2000, Ames et al. 1954)) but they are only known to transmit T. cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli Tejera to humans. Triatominae are vectors of hemogregarines to lizards (Smith 1996).