Bugs of Medical Importance:

Exploring the World of Insects

 Medical Entomology
• Pertains to the study and control of
insects and other arthropods (i.e. ticks,
centipedes, spiders) that directly affect
man’s health and well being by
transmitting diseases or cause
considerable annoyance and irritation
through bites and stings.

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 Medically Important Insects and
other Arthropods
 Mosquitoes  Kissing or Triatomine bugs
 Biting Midges  Sandflies
 Non-biting and Myiasis Flies  Blackflies
 Bedbugs
 Lice  Tsetse flies
 Fleas  Ants
 Cockroaches  Blister Beetles
 Bees and Wasps  Centipedes and Millipedes
 Moths and Butterflies  Scorpions
 Dragonflies and Damselflies
 Mites and Ticks  Venomous Spiders

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 Discomfort Associated with Insects
• vectors /carriers of disease causing agents
• invasion of living tissues (myiasis)
• injury to vital organs such as eyes
• allergic reactions
• venomous secretions
• blood loss or anemia due to infestation
• entomophobia
• nuisance and annoyance

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 Mosquitoes
• Transmit various diseases: Dengue, Chikungunya,
Filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Malaria, and Zika

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Non-biting flies
Houseflies (Musca domestica)
• “Sop food like sponge”
• Mechanical transmitter of
disease agents (i.e. Bacillus
sp food poisoning, B.
cereus , Enterobacter sp.,
Acinetobacter baumanii,
Escherichia coli , Shigella
sonnei , Staphylococcus sp.)
• A nuisance and major
cause of food
contamination.
 Myiasis Flies
(Chrysomyia bezziana,
Cochliomyia hominivorax)
• Human myiasis can sometimes
be fatal. Chrysomyia sp

• Causes pocket-like sinuses in

tissues.

• Treatment - removal of larvae

by irrigation or surgical means
 Other Medically Important Flies

• Vector of
Leishmaniasis, virus
• Cause extreme responsible for
annoyance due to sandfly fever, and a
biting and is a serious protozoan causing
economic threat to Bartonellosis or
the tourism industry. Carrion’s Disease

Culicoides or • 30 known species of the Sand flies

Leptoconops sp.
genus Glossina.
• Fierce biters causing small
itching papules, sometimes
erythematous wheals and
swelling
• Vector of both human and
Biting Midges animal trypanomiasis or
sleeping sickness. Phlebotomus sp
 Ctenophalides canis Ctenophalides felis

Fleas

Pulex irritans Xenopsylla cheopis Echidnophaga gallinacea

 Flea Bites

Tunguiasis
 Monomorium pharaonis

Ants

• Deliver painful stings that can Polyrhachis philippinensis

cause allergic RXNS

• Immediate – erythema and

central wheal – later – pustules

Acanthomyrmex mindanao
© Copyright Gary Alpert, Harvard University, 2005
 Cockroaches
• Pests of homes, restaurants,
warehouses, offices; any structure that
has food preparation or storage areas.
• Feeds on almost anything i.e. bread
crumbs, decaying organic matter, left
over food & carbohydrate rich
materials

• Attracted to and lays eggs cool,

dark, damped, undisturbed places
like cupboards, sinks, cabinets, and
store rooms
• American cockroach come into
contact with human excrement
(sewers) may transmit bacteria
(Salmonella and Shigella)
• German cockroach – Staphylococcus,
Streptococcus, hepatitis and
coliforms
 Pediculus humanus capitis

Lice

• Irritation, disease transmission

• Red papules, 3 to 4 mm in
diameter, purpuric halo maybe
present
• Treatment of all clothings and
beddings of infested individual

• Pediculicidal shampoos and

lotions
Pthirus pubis
 True Bugs
Bedbug
(Cimex lectularis)

• Cause irritation from bites and can be

a nuisance.
• Linear grouping of red blotches,
urticarial wheals, sometimes bulbous
lesions.
• Vector of Anthrax, plague, typhus and
hepatitis.
 KISSING BUGS
(Triatoma sp.)
• Blood feeding on humans,
often at night; anaphylaxis
has been reported from
bites

• Papular lesions, nodular, or

bulbous

• Transmits chagas disease

caused by the protozoan
Trypanosoma sp
 Urticating
Caterpillars

• Larva of moths and butterfly families with

urticating hairs or spines that secrete
poison when they are handled
• Papular eruption, erythema, local swelling
Moths and
Butterflies

• airborne hairs or scales can cause

respiratory problems
• itchy papules or maculopapules may also
develop
• some members are especially irritating as
they attack the eyes and feed on fluids
therein
 Beetles
(Order Coleoptera:
Family Meloidae and Staphylinidae)
• Plant feeding insects that contain the
cantharidin (C10H12O4) in their body
fluids
• Cantharidin penetrates skin readily
producing blisters with tingling and
burning sensation
• Known to serve as intermediate hosts
of helminths parasites: cestodes
Hymenolepis diminuta, H nana,
nematode Gongylonema pulchrum;
acanthocephalids Moniliformis sp
 Spiders

Loxosceles reclusa

3 4

5 6
Latrodectus mactans
• Inject neurotoxic venom
usually in two puncture
marks 9 1
0

• Require antivenin serum,

calcium gluconate and
ice packs
Stages of necrosis in a bite of L. reclusa19
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 Bees • Deliver painful
stings that may
cause either local
reactions or
allergic rxns.

• Local swelling
appear as a
central white spot
with
erythematous
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 Wasps

• aggressive social wasps

• 95% non-aggressive
solitary

• Painful sting, allergic rxns

• Central white spot with

erythematous halo, local
swelling variable
Paper wasps (Polistes sp)
 Scorpions

• Painful sting, some

species deadly
• Sometimes results in
local swelling and
discoloration
• Ice packs is used for
first aide but antivenin
serum will be required
for deadly species
 Ticks
chelicera

pedipalp

hypostome

• possess armed hypostome

• sensory Haller’s structure at tarsus I

Family Argasidae: soft ticks Family Ixodidae: hard ticks

Argas sp. Dermacentor

andersoni Sclerotized
scutum

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Life Cycle of Ticks
Ixodes scapularis
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Tick-Borne Diseases
1. Anemia
2. Dermatitis
3. Tick paralysis
4. Otoacariasis
5. Rocky Mountain spotted fever
(Rickettsia rickettssii)
6. Tick typhus
7. Q fever (Coxiella burnetti)
8. Relapsing fever (Borrelia
duttoni)
9. Tularemia (Francisella
tularensis)
10. Tick-borne viral infections –
encephalitis, Colorado tick
fever
11. Babesiosis (Babesia)
12. Lyme disease (Borrelia
burgdorferi)
24
 Mites
• unarmed hypostome
• no Haller’s organ

male female

• Sarcoptes scabiei

• causes scabies
• diagnosed – epidermal lesions
• treatment – 1% lindane (lotion
or ointment)

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 House Dust Mites
(Dermatophagoides farinae and D.
pteronyssinus)
 cause allergies in humans
when particles are inhaled.

 Dust and dust mite control

 Standard treatment for

allergy
Chigger Mites
(Leptotrombidium deliense)

• Transmit scrub typhus caused by

Rickettsia orientalis /
tsutsugamushi

• Scrub –pertains to the vegetation-

in areas between forest and
clearings

• Papule ulcerates and become

necrotic progressing into an
eschar-lymphadenopathy
 • Adults and naiads are
second intermediate hosts
of intestinal flukes
Prosthodendrium
molenkampi and
Phaneropsolus bannei

• Naiads serves as biological

control agent for
mosquitoes

Dragonflies and Damselflies

Order Odonata (Anisoptera and Zygoptera)
Centipedes
(Scolopendra sp)
• Inflicts a painful bite
when in contact with the
human body
• Painful bites, often two
haemorrhagic punctures
• poison fangs or
toxicognath are actually
modified legs
 Millipedes
• some species cause burns
on the skin or blisters or
yellow to brown
discoloration
• a repugnatorial gland
located between each pair
of legs / segment
• wash skin thoroughly to
remove fluids, then apply
antiseptics when sprayed
Five inch millipede from Mt Banahaw