Life cycle of female ticks of Amblyomma cooperi Nuttal & Warburton, 1908 (Acari: Ixodidae) under laboratory conditions

Abstract

The biological cycle of female ticks of Amblyomma cooperi was studied under controlled conditions. The study has begun with two engorged females collected in a naturally infested wild capybara. The larvae originated from the oviposition of these two females were used for collecting young adults through artificial infestations in rabbits. The female parasitic and free living phases were evaluated using artificial infestation of ticks in a capybara. The average body weight of females was 958.2± 175.6mg, the average pre-egg laying period was 8.5± 1.4 days, the reproductive efficiency index was 59.5± 4.2 and the nutritional efficiency index was 77.3± 4.8. The incubation and eclosion periods were 41.9 and 5.9 days, respectively, and the rate of eclosion was 64%. These figures were obtained under high relative humidity conditions which were necessary for the success of the egg incubation process of this species. The preliminary data obtained with the artificial infestation in rabbits raises the possibility of this and other domestic species be used as an epidemiologic link between the domestic and the wild environment with the potential exposure of human populations to A. cooperi and to the maculosa fever agent.

Study of the life cycle of Amblyomma dubitatum (Acari: Ixodidae) based on field and laboratory data

“…Previous studies have described the developmental rates of A. dubitatum ticks feeding on different hosts under laboratory conditions (Almeida et al 2001;Labruna et al 2004b), and there are some works where information on seasonality of A. dubitatum in Brazil was provided (de Souza et al 2006;Szabo ´et al 2007;Toledo et al 2008). However, the integrative study of ecological and biological aspects of ticks such as seasonal dynamics, natural hosts and factors affecting the developmental phase of the free-living stages, must be performed in order to better understand the life cycle of these parasites under natural conditions.…”

Natural infestation of Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris by Amblyomma dubitatum ticks

“…Previous research on the ecology of A. dubitatum were principally focused on the life cycle under laboratory and field conditions, records of tick-host associations, seasonality and biogeographic distribution (Almeida et al 2001;Chaco ´n et al 2004;Labruna et al 2004 (all these author named A. dubitatum as Amblyomma cooperi); Nava et al 2010;Dantas-Torres et al 2010;Deba ´rbora et al 2012Deba ´rbora et al , 2014, but quantitative studies concerning natural infestation of A. dubitatum on its principal host are lacking, with the exception of Corriale et al (2013). The prevalence of the natural infestation of A. dubitatum on H. hydrochoerus in Corrientes Province found by Corriale et al (2013) was very high (close to 95 %) but the results of this work are difficult to interpret since tick stages found on hosts were not specified by these authors.…”

Life cycle of Amblyomma integrum (Acari: Ixodidae) under laboratory conditions

“…A study done on different Amblyomma species has revealed high RE indices, for instance, A. cooperi, mean REI of 59.5 ± 4.2 (Almeida et al 2001), A. americanum REI of 9.4 (Koch 1983) and A. cajennense, mean RE Indices of 7.187 and 10.352 (De Freitas et al 2002) have been recorded. In the present study the wild caught females were forcefully removed from the natural host while feeding and hence they had a lower REI values.…”