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A study of the diapausing behaviour of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and R. zambeziensis under quasi‐natural conditions in Zambia
Author(s) -
BERKVENS D. L.,
PEGRAM R. G.,
BRANDT J. R. A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
medical and veterinary entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2915
pISSN - 0269-283X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2915.1995.tb00139.x
Subject(s) - diapause , biology , photoperiodism , indigenous , stock (firearms) , zoology , ecology , botany , larva , geography , archaeology
. The diapausing behaviour of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus was studied under quasi‐natural conditions in the Eastern Province of Zambia. Newly‐moulted adults of ticks indigenous to the study area entered a behavioural diapause when exposed to daylengths below a critical photoperiod, provisionally a daylength between 11 h 20min and 11 h 45min. In the Eastern Province of Zambia the diapause was apparently not terminated by a long‐day signal, but by a weakening of the photoperiodic maintenance of the diapause because of increasing age of the ticks. Adults of a reference stock indigenous to Kenya also entered a diapause when exposed to daylengths below the same threshold and maintained this diapause for the same length of time. Adults of a reference stock of Rhipicephalus zambeziensis indigenous to Zimbabwe did not enter a diapause when exposed to the same daylengths. The relevance of the findings is discussed in relation to the distributions of the two species.