Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi parasite with an estimated 70 million people at risk. Traditionally, parasite presence in triatomine vectors is detected through optical microscopy which can be low in sensitivity or molecular techniques which can be costly in endemic countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of a reagent-free technique, the Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for rapid and non-invasive detection of T. cruzi in Triatoma infestans body parts and in wet/dry excreta samples of the insect. NIRS was 100% accurate for predicting the presence of T. cruzi infection Dm28c strain (TcI) in either the midgut or the rectum and models developed from either body part could predict infection in the other part. Models developed to predict infection in excreta samples were 100% accurate for predicting infection in both wet and dry samples. However, models developed using dry excreta could not predict infection in wet samples and vice versa. This is the first study to report on the potential application of NIRS for rapid and non-invasive detection of T. cruzi infection in T. infestans in the laboratory. Future work should demonstrate the capacity of NIRS to detect T. cruzi in triatomines originating from the field.

Over the last three decades, it has been progressively assumed that morphology has become obsolete for trypanosomatid systematics. Traditional taxonomy, based on the occurrence of specific kinds of cell morphotypes during life cycles and the morphometry of such cells, is often rejected by molecular phylogenies inferred mostly from 18S rDNA alone or combined with GAPDH. In such context, we hypothesized the affinities of 35 representatives of seven trypanosomatid genera from separated and combined cladistics analyses of morphological and 18S matrices. Morphology is shown to be more consistent and to have stronger synapomorphy retention than the 18S data. The strict consensus of cladograms from separated analyses was mostly unresolved, while combined analysis produced a meaningful and robust phylogenetic pattern, as evidenced by partition congruence index, Bremer support and frequencies of groups present/contradicted. The results (1) corroborate the separation of Angomonas and Strigomonas from Crithidia, which is now shown to be monophyletic, (2) support the revalidation of the genus Wallaceina, and (3) place the genera Herpetomonas, Leptomonas and Phytomonas within a single clade. Overall, we demonstrate the belief that morphological characters are inferior to molecular ones for trypanosomatid systematics is a consequence of neglecting their inclusion in phylogenetic analyses.