The insect has five larval stages, with a moult between each. Each larval stage consumes a single large meal of blood, which triggers the moulting process, 12–15 days later. Wigglesworth demonstrated that the moult is started by
prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) secreted into the blood in response to hormone release by neurosecretory cells in the brain. Further it was demonstrated that the
corpora allata secrete the
juvenile hormone which prevents the premature development into an adult. The removal of the head during any larval stage causes early development into an adult, whereas the implantation of a juvenile head during the fifth larval stage results in a giant sixth stage larva. The adult secretes compounds into the wound during feeding, including
lipocalins. These lipocalins were demonstrated to serve various functions including sequestering
amines – especially
serotonin – to prevent vasoconstriction (and possibly coagulation) in the host by Andersen et al. 2003. The male reproductive system of
R. prolixus contains four accessory glands, three which are responsible for producing the
spermathecae and one which is responsible for the movement of spermatozoa from the spermatophore into the female. Once mating occurs, the sperm move through the reproductive system of the female through peristatic waves. The female then
stores the sperm until fertilization. ==As disease vector==