The ixodoidea of Canada

Abstract

Ottawa, for the vast amount of tick material he collected during his employment at the Kamloops laboratory, for the loan of tick specimens from the Canadian National Collection of Insects, and for his inspiration and assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. Others who at the Kamloops laboratory collected material or otherwise added to the knowledge of the ticks of Canada are the late Mr. Eric Hearle (officer in charge, 1928-1934), Mr. G. Allen Mail (officer in charge, 1937-1943), and various assistants, especially the late Mr.

The Biological Survey of Canada: A Personal History

“…The geographic distribution and to a lesser extent local abundance of D. albipictus are closely linked with the availability of moose as hosts (Samuel 1989;Zarnke et al 1990). In Canada, D. albipictus occurs from the east coast to the west coast (Bequaert 1945;Gregson 1956;Wilkinson 1967;Kennedy and Newman 1986), though there are no records for Newfoundland. The northernmost records for D. albipictus are Fort Liard and Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, both of which are close to 60°N (Wilkinson 1967).…”

“…Both larvae and nymphs feed and moult on one individual host (Bishopp and Trembley 1945). In Canada, winter ticks have also been collected from a variety of other mammals including: mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque) (Samuel et al 1981;Welch et al 1991;Wilkinson 1970), white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann) (Gregson 1956), woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou (Gmelin), reindeer, Rangifer tarandus tarandus (Linnaeus) (Welch et al 1990), plains buffalo or bison, Bison bison bison (Linnaeus), wood buffalo or bison, B. b. athabascae Rhoads and mountain sheep, Ovis canadensis Shaw. Among domestic animals, horses and cattle are occasionally severely infested (Bruce 1927;Cameron and Fulton 1927;Bishopp and Trembley 1945).…”

“…Males usually appear before, and disappear sooner than, females (Gregson 1951). Host-seeking populations usually peak in late March in British Columbia (Hearle 1938;Gregson 1951;Wilkinson and Gregson 1985), or late May to early June in Alberta and Saskatchewan (Holland 1940;Brown 1944;Gregson 1956). In certain localities near Kamloops, British Columbia, adults abruptly disappear by mid-May each spring, though in damper areas of the province adults remain active until June (Gregson 1951).…”

“…They are hollowed along their inner faces, such that, when apposed, they more or less cover the hypostome and chelicerae; they are spread apart over the surface of the skin during feeding. The palpi generally consist of four, or rarely three, free segments and these are usually named and numbered articles 1-4 in a proximal to distal sequence in descriptive literature on ticks (e.g., Gregson 1956;Clifford et al 1961;Edwards 1975). However, palpal setal numbers and setation patterns among larval ticks confirm that the four free segments in Ixodida are homologous with the segments termed trochanter, femur, genu, and fused tibiotarsus of other parasitiform Acari, and we follow Klompen (1992) in applying these terms to ticks.…”

“…In Canada, adults of Dermacentor andersoni are common on medium to large domestic mammals, such as horses, cattle, sheep, and dogs (Hearle 1938;Gregson 1956;Wilkinson 1970;) and wild mammals, such as mountain sheep and goats (Bruce 1920;Buckell 1934;Kerr and Holmes 1966); grizzly bears (Hewitt 1915); and coyotes, porcupines, and rabbits (Bruce 1920;Brown 1944). Humans are readily bitten by male and female D. andersoni (Gregson 1956;Kennedy and Newman 1986) and surprisingly, this instar has occasionally been removed from various ground-dwelling bird species (Cooley 1938;).…”