Premium
Comparative off‐host survival of larval Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks ( Dermacentor andersoni ) collected from ecologically distinct field populations
Author(s) -
OWEN J. P.,
VANDER VLIET A.,
SCOLES G. A.
Publication year - 2014
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/mve.12049
Subject(s) - biology , tick , ixodidae , larva , abiotic component , ecology , dermacentor reticulatus , dermacentor , range (aeronautics) , acari , host (biology) , zoology , materials science , composite material
Dermacentor andersoni (Ixodida: Ixodidae) Stiles, also known as the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick ( RMWT ), is found throughout the western United States and transmits pathogens of importance to human and animal health. The distributions and activity patterns of RMWT s are shaped by regional climatic variation. However, it is unknown if responses to climatic variation differ across the tick's geographical range. The objective of this narrow study was to test the hypothesis that the responses of RMWT s to abiotic conditions [e.g. temperature and RH (relative humidity)] vary among populations. We collected RMWT s from ecologically distinct field sites in the states of Montana and Oregon ( USA ). In the laboratory, we tracked weekly survival of tick larvae under four combinations of RH (75% and 98%) and temperature (26 and 32 °C) that reflected the range of conditions observed in the source habitats during spring‐summer. For both populations, larval survival time decreased at the higher ambient temperature (50% mortality 1–2 weeks earlier). Differences in RH did not affect the survival time of larvae from Oregon. By contrast, the survival time of larvae from Montana decreased at the lower RH (50% mortality 1 week earlier). These data suggest that the tolerance limits for water stress may differ among populations of D. andersoni .