Simulium perplexum Shelley, Maia-Herzog, Luna Dias & Couch is structurally similar in the pupal stage to Simulium guianense Wise, the main vector in the onchocerciasis foci of Amazonian Brazil and Venezuela.
Simulium guianense Wise is a Latin American vector complex of black flies associated with transmission of the causal agent of human onchocerciasis (river blindness).