Enzymatic variability and phylogenetic relatedness among Triatoma infestans, T. platensis, T. delpontei and T. rubrovaria

Abstract

Four congeneric species of triatomine bugs, Triatoma platensis, T. delpontei, T. rubrovaria and T. infestans, were examined by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. These four species are distributed sympatrically throughout Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and were found to be closely related according to their known ethological, ecological and morphological traits. In order to evaluate previous hypotheses concerning the phylogenetic branching within this group, isoenzyme patterns were submitted to classical phenetic and genetic clustering analysis. Results are discussed in the light of occasional natural gene flow between T. infestans and T. platensis, and indicate that ecology is the main factor explaining both their present status and their morphological differentiation.