220 Arthropods as Essential Hosts of Pathogenic Protozoa 
Ornithodoros moubata. The evolution proceeds in the first two 
species of bed-bugs as rapidly as in Conorhinus, or even more rapidly, 
but they remain infective for a much shorter time and hence Brumpt 
considers that they play a much less important role in the spread of 
the disease. 
Conorhinus megistus, like related forms in our Southern States, 
very commonly frequents houses and attacks man with avidity. 
Chagas states that the bites are painless and do not leave any traces. 
They are usually inflicted on the lips, or the cheeks and thus the 
buccal mucosa of a sleeper may be soiled by the dejections of the 
insect and the bite serving as a port of entry of the virus, remain 
unnoticed. 
The possibility of some of our North American Reduviidse play¬ 
ing a similar role in the transmission of disease should not be over¬ 
looked. 
Leishmanioses and Insects—Closely related to the trypanosomes 
is a group of intracellular parasites which have recently been grouped 
by Ross under the genus Leishmania. Five species are known to 
affect man. Three of these produce local skin infestations, but two 
of them, Leishmania donovani and L. infantum, produce serious and 
often fatal systemic diseases. 
The first of these, that produced by L. donovani, is an exceedingly 
virulent disease common in certain regions of India and China. It 
is commonly known as “Kala-azar,” or “dum-dum” fever, and more 
technically as tropical leishmaniasis. Patton (1907) believes that 
the parasite is transmitted by the bed-bug Cimex hemipterus, and has 
described a developmental cycle similar to that which can be found 
in artificial cultures. On the other hand, Donovan was unable to 
confirm Patton’s w r ork and believes that the true intermediate host is 
a Reduviid bug, Conorhinus rubrofasciatus. 
Leishmania infantum is the cause of the so-called infantile splenic 
leishmaniasis, occurring in northern Africa, Spain, Portugal, Italy, 
and possibly other parts of Europe. The parasite occurs habitually 
in the dog and is only accidentally transferred to children, Alvares 
and da Silva, in Portugal (according to Brumpt, 1913) have found 
that the excrement of a flea from a diseased dog contains flagellates, 
and they suggest that the infection may be transmitted by the acci¬ 
dental inoculation of this excrement by means of the proboscis of the 
flea, as has been thought to occur in the case of the plague. To this 
