Figure 4.
(A) Percentage of insects of different stages (second, third, fourth, and fifth instars and adult females and males of Triatoma rubida and third-instar Rhodnius prolixus) that defecate while feeding. Note that only adult females defecated. We found that 45% of R. prolixus defecated while feeding, which shows that our assay was sufficiently sensitive to study the defecation pattern of T. rubida. (B): Percentage of insects that defecated within 10 minutes after the end of a feeding event. (C) Percentage of insects that defecated within the 1-hour feeding period. In B and C the percentages of insects include those that defecated while feeding. The number of insects tested in each group is shown in parentheses. Groups that do not share letters differ statistically (Yates corrected χ2 2 × 2 tests, P < 0.05).