Assassin Bugs - disease transmitting blood feeders

The bite of the assassin bug (Family Reduviidae) transmits a species of trypanosome (a pathogenic bacterium) that can result in Chagas disease – a serious disorder that can affect the nervous system, digestive system, and heart.

Assassin bugs (or reduviids) and bed bugs are considered "true bugs" by entomologists because of specific characteristics (like their distinctive wings). Like bed bugs, assassin bugs obtain a blood meal by inserting their needle-like, double-barreled, proboscis through the flesh of their vertebrate prey. Saliva (containing anticoagulants) is injected through one "barrel" while blood is siphoned up through another. Another characteristic assassin bugs share with bed bugs is that they both go though a series of immature stages called nymphs. Each nymph must obtain a blood meal before it can mature further. When it does fee, its body swells in size, causing it to shed its suddenly too tight outer skeleton. The larger nymph that emerges is one step closer to becoming a reproductively active adult.

In Brazil, the popular name of one species of assassin bug is barbeiro ("the barber") - a name that derives from the creature’s nocturnal habit of biting the face of its victims to obtain a blood meal. On a related note, a bite from an Argentinean assassin bug may well explain Charles Darwin’s lifelong ill health after his return from the voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle. An attempt to test Darwin's remains at Westminster Abbey for signs of Chagas disease was (not surprisingly) met with a refusal by the Abbey's curator.

Readers should definitely check out the National Geographic video on MSN of assassin bugs attacking bats - including a vampire bat pup!