External morphological anomalies in ixodid ticks from Thrace, Turkey

Abstract

Of 18,667 ticks examined, 33 specimens from species identified as Haemaphysalis parva, Hyalomma marginatum, Hy. scupense, Rhipicephalus bursa and Rh. turanicus were found to have external morphological anomalies. Anomalous Ha. parva, Hy. scupence and Rh. turanicus were reported in this study for the first time. General anomalies manifested as asymmetry and deformations of the idiosoma, whereas local anomalies occurred in legs, exoskeleton, spiracular, adanal, subanal and accessory plates, mouthparts and capitulum. With this study describing a gynandromorphic Hy. marginatum, the number of gynandromorphic tick cases has been raised to two in Turkey.

Morphological abnormalities in ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) feeding on humans in Central Black Sea region, Turkey

“…Other than this study, one case of gynandromorphism in H. marginatum has been reported by Keskin et al (2012). Recently, 33 specimens belonging to five tick species were found to have external morphological anomalies by Kar et al (2015), including one case of gynandromorphism in H. marginatum.…”

“…However, the frequency of gynandromorphism is relatively higher in the natural populations of Amblyomma and Hyalomma ticks, compared to other genera (Pervomaisky 1950;Guglielmone et al 1999). To date, approximately 80 natural cases of gynandromorphic ticks have been documented in Ixodidae (Labruna et al 2002;Keskin et al 2012;Kar et al 2015;Prusinski et al 2015). In this study, gynandromorphism was observed in four specimens of H. marginatum.…”

“…oligomely = complete absence of appendages, heterosymely = the fusion of appendages lying on the same side of the idiosoma, symely = the fusion of appendages lying on the opposite side of the idiosoma, polymely = the formation of supernumerary appendages, atrophy = the reduction in the length of appendages, heteromorphose = the deformation of appendage segments and joints and ectomely = changes of place implantation of appendages into idiosoma. Although, to date, many authors have documented abnormalities in several tick species (Feldman-Muhsam 1950;Latif et al 1988;Estrada-Peña 2001;Labruna et al 2002;Dergousoff and Chilton 2007), there is very limited documentation about morphological abnormalities in ticks of Turkey (Keskin et al 2012;Kar et al 2015). In the present study, morphological abnormalities in ticks collected on humans were investigated in detail for the first time and many forms of morphological abnormalities, including gynandromorphism, were reported for Turkey.…”

“…Neumann (1899) was the first scientist who documented some abnormalities in ticks. Campana-Rouget (1959a, b) and Tovornik (1987) prepared a comprehensive list of general and local tick abnormalities while Guglielmone et al (1999), Dergousoff and Chilton (2007), Nowak-Chmura (2012), Keskin et al (2012) and Kar et al (2015) documented several types of general and local abnormalities such as asymmetry, bifurcation, gynandromorphism, ectromely and atrophy. Senevet (1922) determined 0.7 % abnormality in some species of the genus Hyalomma, whereas Č erný (1957) recorded 1.3 % abnormal specimens amongst 15,000 ticks belonging to genera Ixodes, Dermacentor and Haemaphysalis.…”

“…Gynandromorphism is one of the most documented abnormalities in ticks (Labruna et al 2002;Keskin et al 2012;Prusinski et al 2015), but also there are several reports about other types of morphological abnormalities, such as asymmetry, fusion of adanal plates and festoons, atrophy or lack of one or two legs (Campana-Rouget 1959b, Guglielmone et al 1999Dergousoff and Chilton 2007;Kar et al 2015).…”