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Survival and energy use of Ixodes scapularis nymphs throughout their overwintering period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2019

James C. Burtis Open the ORCID record for James C. Burtis [Opens in a new window] ,
Timothy J. Fahey  and
Joseph B. Yavitt
James C. Burtis*
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, 310 Fernow Hall, Ithaca NY 14853, USA Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 3132 Comstock Hall, Ithaca NY 14853, USA
Timothy J. Fahey
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, 310 Fernow Hall, Ithaca NY 14853, USA
Joseph B. Yavitt
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, 310 Fernow Hall, Ithaca NY 14853, USA
*
Author for correspondence: James C. Burtis, E-mail: jb766@cornell.edu
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Abstract

The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) spends up to 10 months in the soil between feeding as larvae and questing for hosts as nymphs the following year. We tracked the survival and energy use of 4320 engorged larvae evenly divided across 288 microcosms under field conditions from September to July on sites with high (>12 nymphs/150 m2) and low (<1.2 nymphs/150 m2) densities of naturally questing I. scapularis in New York State. Subsets of microcosms were destructively sampled periodically during this period to determine tick survivorship and physiological age. Across all sites tick mortality was low during the winter and increased in the spring and early summer, coincident with increasing energy use. Neither energy use nor mortality differed significantly between sites with high vs low natural tick density, but we did observe a significant positive relationship between soil organic matter content and the survival of I. scapularis during the spring. Our results suggest that the off-host mortality and energy use of I. scapularis nymphs is relatively low in the winter and increases significantly in the spring and early summer.

Keywords

Energy usageIxodes scapularismicrocosmmicrohabitatmortalityoverwinter
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 146 , Issue 6 , May 2019 , pp. 781 - 790
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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