I was outdoors at night and I noticed crawling in the back of my neck and I removed the following insect from my neck and took a picture of it, it looks like a triatomine but I am not an expert in this so I need help identifying this insect. I also noticed it had a "sting-like" mouth. I live in the El Paso area which has a high presence of T. Cruzi in kissing bugs. My neck feels like if I had a small bruise and my dad noticed redness in the area. Can someone help me identify this insect? I have it inside a jar in the freezer if you need any more pictures of it.
Thank you.
Potentially bitten by this insect
Looks like a kissing bug which can give you Chagas disease. I believe thats a parasite. Apparently some people have an allergic reaction to the bite. Possible anaphylactic shock.
This is a harmless seed bug (family Lygaeidae) in the genus Melacoryphus - see https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Melacoryphus_lateralis_P1520170a.jpg for an example. It is extremely unlikely for it to have bitten you, and even if it had, the bite would be of no consequence. It looks absolutely nothing like a kissing bug!
Thats interesting, makes me wonder if it's mimicking.
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