Figure 1

Historical and physical-chemical interaction between the environment and triatomines. Due to the historical and physical-chemical interaction that occurred between the environment and triatomines, several adaptations and exaptations have appeared and changed, and such changes have been fixed as genetic information. These interactions are illustrated by the three arrows on the left. It is difficult to illustrate how natural history is the product (in part) of the interactions that have occurred, in evolutionary time, between the triatomines and the environment. In any case, the arrow on the right illustrates how at least part of the natural history, which may include the geological and climatic history (including the physical-chemical factors), has been registered in the triatomines genome.