Abstract:
The states of Kansas and Oklahoma, in the central Great Plains, lie at the western periphery of the geographic distributions of several tick species. As the focus of most research on ticks and tick-borne diseases has been on Lyme disease which commonly occurs in areas to the north and east, the ticks of this region have seen little research attention. Here, we report on the phenology and activity patterns shown by tick species observed at 10 sites across the two states and explore factors associated with abundance of all and life specific individuals of the dominant species. Ticks were collected in 2020-2022 using dragging, flagging and carbon-dioxide trapping techniques, designed to detect questing ticks. The dominant species was A. americanum (24098, 97%) followed by Dermacentor variabilis (370, 2%), D. albipictus (271, 1%), Ixodes scapularis (91, <1%) and A. maculatum (38, <1%). Amblyomma americanum, A. maculatum and D. variabilis were active in Spring and Summer, while D. albipictus and I. scapularis were active in Fall and Winter. Factors associated with numbers of individuals of A. americanum included day of year, habitat, and latitude. Similar associations were observed when abundance was examined by life-stage. Overall, the picture is one of broadly distributed tick species that shows seasonal limitations in the timing of their questing activity.
摘要:
堪萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州,在大平原中部,位于几种蜱物种地理分布的西部边缘。由于大多数关于蜱和蜱传疾病的研究重点都集中在莱姆病上,莱姆病常见于北部和东部地区,该地区的蜱虫很少受到研究关注。这里,我们报告了在两个州的10个地点观察到的蜱物种的物候和活动模式,并探索了与优势物种的所有个体和特定生命个体的丰度相关的因素。滴答是在2020-2022年使用拖动收集的,标记和二氧化碳捕集技术,旨在检测任务蜱。优势种是美洲A.americanum(24098,97%),其次是Dermacentorvariabilis(370,2%),D.albipictus(271,1%),肩cap肌(91,<1%)和A.maculatum(38,<1%)。美洲弱视,黄斑病和D.variabilis在春季和夏季活跃,而夏秋和冬秋两季则活跃。与美洲A个体数量相关的因素包括一年中的某一天,栖息地,和纬度。当按生命阶段检查丰度时,观察到类似的关联。总的来说,图片是一个分布广泛的蜱种,显示出季节性的限制,在他们的调查活动的时间。