blood feeders

simuliidae

• black flies

• onchoceriasis; “river blindness”

• filarial worm

tabanidae

• horseflies, deerflies

• loa loa/eye worm

• tularemia/rabbit fever → bacterial disease

• can be contracted by bite from infected tick or fly, or aerosolized particles

glossinidae

• tsetse flies

• sleeping sickness - trypanosomes

• major epidemics

• females feed their larvae for two instars with milk-like glandular secretions

psychodidae

• sandflies

• leishmaniasis - parasitic disease, tropical

culicidae

• mosquitos

• 150 species NA, 64 NJ, 80+ FL

• 3 legged stool of mosquito control (John B. Smith):

  • rutgers center for vector biology

  • NJSMCC

  • county mosquito control agencies

• malaria:

  • plasmodium spp.

  • parasite has to have lifecycle in both mosquito and human hosts in order to reproduce

  • CDC was established to control in US, eradicated in 5 years

• dengue:

  • Aedes aegypti

  • 4 serotypes

  • dengue fever: painful but not fatal

  • dengue hemorrhagic fever: occurs when someone was previously infected, and gets infected again with a different serotype → fatal

• chikungunya

  • swollen feet

pulicidae

• fleas

• plague Yersinia pestis

calliphoridae

• blow fly

• new world screwworm

• endemic in south America, any warm blooded animal is at risk

• eradicated in US using sterile male technique

acarina

• ticks

• must obtain blood meal at each instar in order to molt to next life stage

• lymes disease

  • bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi

reduviidae

• kissing/assassin bugs

• chagas disease

  • bad