Gurgel-Goncalves Rodrigo, Cuba César Augusto Cuba
1 Laboratório de Parasitologia Médica e Biologia de Vetores, Faculdade de Medicina, Area de Patologia, Universidade de Brasília, Asa Norte, CEP 70.910-900 Distrito Federal, Brazil.
J Med Entomol. 2009 Jul;46(4):952-60. doi: 10.1603/033.046.0430.
Rhodnius neglectus is frequently found in palm trees and bird nests in sylvatic environments. However, adult specimens infected by Trypanosoma cruzi have been invading houses in central Brazil. Analyzing and predicting the geographical distribution of this species may improve vector surveillance strategies for Chagas disease. Ecological niche modeling using the genetic algorithm for rule-set production (GARP) was applied to predict the geographical distribution of R. neglectus from occurrence records and a set of 23 predictor variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation, altitude, and vegetation). Additionally, the geographical distribution of R. neglectus was compared with the geographical distribution of four species of palm trees and two species of birds from the study region. The models were able to predict, with high probability, the occurrence of R. neglectus as a regular (although nonendemic) species of the Cerrado biome in central Brazil. Caatinga, Amazonian savanna, Pantanal, and the Bolivian Chaco appear as areas with lower probabilities of potential occurrence for the species. A great overlap was observed between the distribution of R. neglectus, palm trees (Acrocomia aculeata and Syagrus oleracea), and birds (Phacellodomus ruber and Pseudoseisura cristata). By including new records for R. neglectus (from both sylvatic and domestic environments), our study showed a distribution increase toward the west and northeast areas of Brazil in the "diagonal of open/dry ecoregions of South America". These results should aid Chagas disease vector surveillance programs, given that household invasion by Rhodnius species maintains the risk of disease transmission and limits control strategies.
忽视罗蛉经常出现在野生环境中的棕榈树和鸟巢里。然而，感染克氏锥虫的成年标本已侵入巴西中部的房屋。分析和预测该物种的地理分布可能会改进恰加斯病的病媒监测策略。运用基于规则集生成的遗传算法（GARP）进行生态位建模，以根据出现记录和一组23个预测变量（如温度、降水、海拔和植被）来预测忽视罗蛉的地理分布。此外，还将忽视罗蛉的地理分布与研究区域内的四种棕榈树和两种鸟类的地理分布进行了比较。这些模型能够以较高概率预测忽视罗蛉作为巴西中部塞拉多生物群落的常见（尽管并非地方特有）物种的出现情况。卡廷加、亚马孙稀树草原、潘塔纳尔湿地和玻利维亚查科地区似乎是该物种潜在出现概率较低的区域。在忽视罗蛉、棕榈树（刺葵和油棕榈）和鸟类（红胸蚁鸟和冠伪细尾鹩莺）的分布之间观察到了很大的重叠。通过纳入忽视罗蛉的新记录（来自野生和家庭环境），我们的研究表明，在“南美洲开放/干旱生态区对角线”上，该物种在巴西西部和东北部地区的分布有所增加。鉴于罗蛉属物种侵入家庭会维持疾病传播风险并限制控制策略，这些结果应有助于恰加斯病病媒监测项目。
