%0 Journal Article %T Population dynamics and feeding behavior of Triatoma brasiliensis and Triatoma pseudomaculata, main vectors of Chagas disease in Northeastern Brazil %A Soares Rodrigo Pedro Pinto %A Evangelista Luciene das Gra£¿as %A Laranja Luciano Soares %A Diotaiuti Lil¨¦ia %J Mem¨®rias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz %D 2000 %I Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Minist¨¦rio da Sa¨²de %X Biological parameters of Triatoma brasiliensis and T. pseudomaculata that could influence the epidemiological importance of these insects as vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi were compared. The parameters studied were incubation period, interval between hatching or moulting and first feeding, number of blood meals, development time, mortality, net reproductive rate, instantaneous daily reproductive rate, time-lapse before starting feeding, duration of feeding, blood ingestion capacity, occurrence of defecation and blood ingestion velocity. Most aspects of feeding were similar for the two species, although T. pseudomaculata had a longer life cycle than T. brasiliensis producing one and two generations per year, respectively. The two species had similar instantaneous daily rates of population growth. %K Triatoma brasiliensis %K Triatoma pseudomaculata %K population dynamics %K feeding behavior %K Brazil %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762000000200003