On palms, bugs, and Chagas disease in the Americas

Palms are widely distributed throughout the Americas, as this 1853 map by Alfred Russel Wallace shows. This distribution almost perfectly matches the distribution of endemic human Chagas disease. Palm-living triatomine bugs make up the bridge between palms and disease. The bugs share palm crown habitats with Trypanosoma cruzi hosts. Flying from palms, infected vectors invade houses and can transmit the parasite to humans. Understanding the ecological links between palms and the parasite's vectors and hosts will be crucial for the long-term prevention of human Chagas disease (AR Wallace plates reproduced with permission from John van Wyhe; www.wallace-online.org).