Biology of Disease Vectors

William H. Marquardt, William H. Marquardt

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9780080494067
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Entomologia

Biology of Disease Vectors presents a comprehensive and advanced discussion of disease vectors and what the future may hold for their control. This edition examines the control of disease vectors through topics such as general biological requirements of vectors, epidemiology, physiology and molecular biology, genetics, principles of control and insecticide resistance. Methods of maintaining vectors in the laboratory are also described in detail.No other single volume includes both basic information on vectors, as well as chapters on cutting-edge topics, authored by the leading experts in the field. The first edition of Biology of Disease Vectors was a landmark text, and this edition promises to have even more impact as a reference for current thought and techniques in vector biology.Current - each chapter represents the present state of knowledge in the subject areaAuthoritative - authors include leading researchers in the fieldComplete - provides both independent investigator and the student with a single reference volume which adopts an explicitly evolutionary viewpoint throuoghout all chapters. Useful - conceptual frameworks for all subject areas include crucial information needed for application to difficult problems of controlling vector-borne diseases

PART I

INTRODUCTION AND VECTORS

CHAPTER 1 The Arthropods

BORIS C. KONDRATIEFF, WILLIAM C. BLACK, IV

INTRODUCTION

Arthropods, the joint-footed animals, are a highly successful group of animals unrivaled by any others in diversity of structure and function. As a group they first appeared from the Precambrian to the Cambrian divisions of earth’s history, and they have radiated into unsurpassed lineages, both extinct and extant. Arthropods occur practically everywhere and have adapted to nearly every imaginable source of food, including vertebrate blood.

Arthropods are notable for having a segmental body plan made up of chitinous exoskeletal plates separated by less hardened membranous areas. Paired segmental appendages are usually present on at least some body segments. Additionally, important distinguishing characters include a ventral chain of segmental ganglia, an open circulatory system, and a body cavity that is a hemocoel. Most arthropods ventilate by means of a tracheal system and have well-developed appendicular mouthparts.

Extant arthropods include the chelicerates, crustaceans, myriapods, and insects. The distinctions among these groups are based largely on the manner in which the different segments are grouped together to form compact and distinct parts of the body and on the number and position of the appendages (Fig. 1.1). Two of these groups, the chelicerates (represented by mites, ticks, scorpions, and relatives) and the insects, include many important vector taxa; these are discussed in detail.

FIGURE 1.1 Representatives of the major groups of arthropods.

THE CHELICERATA

This diverse group of arthropods is characterized by possessing chelicerae and pedipalpi, lacking antennae, and having four pairs of legs as adults and a cephalothorax and abdomen. The class Arachnida constitutes the largest and most important class of Chelicerata, with nearly 70,000 species worldwide. Most authorities recognize at least 11 major groups of arachnids, but with much disagreement on names for the groups. The most important arachnid groups that may affect human health directly or indirectly are the acarines and ticks (Chapters 3 and 4).

THE INSECTS (HEXAPODA)

The 31 extant hexapoda orders (Table 1.1) (following Borror et al. 1989) include some of the most unique and spectacular animals on earth. About 1 million species have been described, and there have been estimates of as high as 8 million total species existing on our planet. The impact of insects on the “speciescape” (Wheeler 1990) is immense. Their high species richness has been attributed to their small size, their short generation time, their rather sophisticated nervous system, their coevolution with plants, their ability to fly, and their different development strategies.

TABLE 1.1 Outline of the Hexapoda (following Borror et al. 1989)

Entognatha 1. Protura (Myrientomata)—proturans 2. Collembola (Oligentomata)—springtails 3. Diplura (Entognatha, Entotrophi, Aptera)—diplurans Insecta 4. Microcoryphia (Archaeognatha; Thysanura, Ectognatha, and Ectotrophi in part)—bristletails 5. Thysanura (Ectognatha, Ectotrophi, Zygentoma)—silverfish, firebrats Pterygota —winged and secondarily wingless insects 6. Ephemeroptera (Ephemerida, Plectoptera)—mayflies 7. Odonata—dragonflies and damselflies 8. Grylloblattaria (Grylloblattodea, Notoptera)—rock crawlers 9. Phasmida (Phasmatida, Phasmatoptera, Phasmatodea, Cheleutoptera; Orthoptera in part)—walkingsticks and timemas 10. Orthoptera (Saltatoria, including Grylloptera)—grasshoppers and crickets 11. Mantodea (Orthoptera, Dictyoptera, Dictuoptera in part)— mantids 12. Blattaria (Blattodea; Orthoptera, Dictyoptera, Dictuoptera in part)—cockroaches 13. Isoptera (Dictyoptera, Dictuoptera in part)—termites 14. Dermaptera (Euplexoptera)—earwigs 15. Embiidina (Embioptera)—webspinners 16. Plecoptera—stone flies 17. Zoraptera—zorapterans 18. Psocoptera (Corrodentia)—psocids 19. Phthiraptera (Mallophaga, Anoplura, Siphunculata)—lice 20. Heteroptera (Hemiptera)—bugs 21. Homoptera (Hemiptera in part)—cicadas, hoppers, psyllids, whiteflies, aphids, and scale insects 22. Thysanoptera (Physapoda)—thrips 23. Neuroptera (including Megaloptera and Raphidiodea)— alderflies, dobsonflies, fishflies, snakeflies, lacewings, antlions, and owlflies 24. Coleoptera—beetles 25. Strepsiptera (Coleoptera in part)—twisted-wing parasites 26. Mecoptera (including Neomecoptera)—scorpion flies 27. Siphonaptera—fleas 28. Diptera—flies 29. Trichoptera—caddisflies 30. Lepidoptera (including Zeugloptera)—butterflies and moths 31. Hymenoptera—sawflies, ichneumonids, chalcids, ants, wasps, and bees

As a group, hexapods are recognized by three main body regions (head, thorax, abdomen), three pairs of legs (restricted to the thorax), and one pair of antennae (Fig. 1.2). Adult insects normally have wings, but there are groups of primitively wingless insects and many groups that have secondarily lost wings. Within the hexapods, three major kinds of developmental patterns are recognized. The noninsect hexapods, or Entognatha (Protura, Diplura, Collembola), and the Microcoryphia and Thysanura (Table 1.1) develop to adulthood with little change in body form (ametaboly), except for sexual maturation (Fig. 1.3). All other insects have either gradual change in body form (hemimetaboly) or a pronounced change from a simplified wingless immature stage to usually a winged adult stage via a pupal stage (holometaboly) (Fig. 1.3).

FIGURE 1.2 The external anatomy of a generalized insect.

From William S. Romoser and John G. Stoffolano, Jr., The Science of Entomology. Copyright © 1994 Wm. C. Brown Communications, Inc., Dubuque, Iowa. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

FIGURE 1.3 Patterns of development in insects.

From Clyde F. Herried, Biology. Copyright © 1977 Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Simon & Schuster.

Families of four orders of insects (Heteroptera, Phthiraptera, Siphonaptera, and Diptera) are covered in succeeding chapters (Chapters 5–13) that contain representatives affecting human health directly or indirectly.

Readings

Borror D.J., Triplehorn C.A., Johnson N.F. An Introduction to the Study of the Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1989.

Wheeler Q.D. Insect diversity and cladistic constraints. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 1990;83:1031–1047.

CHAPTER 2 Evolution of Arthropod Disease Vectors

WILLIAM C. BLACK, IV , BORIS C. KONDRATIEFF

INTRODUCTION

Fossils resembling arthropods first appeared during the late Proterozoic era, about 600 to 540 million years ago. Today the phylum Arthropoda contains ∼80% of all extant, metazoan animal species, and they have come to occupy virtually every marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and aerial habitat on earth. Arthropods are essential components of most of the major food chains. In many ecosystems arthropods consume and recycle detritus and the associated bacteria, algae, and fungi. Many species consume either the living or dead tissues of terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, others are voracious predators or parasites. Given this huge taxonomic and ecological diversity, it is not surprising that some arthropods have evolved the ability to utilize a rich and abundant source of nutrients, the blood of vertebrates.

By plotting the occurrences of hematophagy (the habit of feeding on blood) (Fig. 2.1, solid circles) on the current phylogenetic hypothesis for arthropods (Wheeler et al. 2001), we can see that blood feeding has evolved independently at least 21 times in disparate arthropod taxa. Within the single insect Order Diptera, hematophagy has probably evolved independently in nine families. There is no evidence of monophyly among hematophagous fly species in the family Muscidae, and it is likely that blood feeding arose at least four additional times in this family.

FIGURE 2.1 Current hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships among ancestral and extant arthropod groups. Phylogenetic relationships among hexapod orders is based upon Wheeler et al. (2001), relationships among Chelicerata is based upon Wheeler and Hayashi (1998) and Weygoldt (1998), and relationships among the Acari is based upon Lindquist (1984). The evolution of a hematophagous taxon is indicated with a solid circle. Repres...