Seasonal activities of the pigeon tick Argas reflexus (Acari: Argasidae) in Berlin, Germany

Title:

Seasonal activities of the pigeon tick Argas reflexus (Acari: Argasidae) in Berlin, Germany

Creator:

Dautel, H., Kahl, O., Scheurer, S., and Knülle, W.

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:08dbfb98-d86a-499a-931b-99b30fa095ef
uuid:08dbfb98-d86a-499a-931b-99b30fa095ef
urnnbn:urn:nbn:cz:aba007-000di0

Subject:

Acari, Argas reflexus, tick, seasonal activity, host-seeking, and urban ecology

Type:

model:internalpart and TEXT

Format:

print

Description:

The seasonal activities of the European pigeon tick, Argas reflexus, in Berlin were investigated (a) by trapping locomotory active ticks and (b) by determining the occurrence of tick-invasions into human habitations. Tick trapping was carried out in two tick-infested attics in 1988. Pigeons were available for ticks in one of the attics only, while a previously existing bird colony was expelled from the other. Ticks were trapped by means of smooth V- shaped metal gutters cemented to the attic walls. Trapped nymphal and adult ticks were marked and released into cracks of the attic wall inside the rectangular traps in two-weck-intervals. During the one-year-study a total of 2081 ticks was trapped, 83% of which were larvae, 10% nymphs, 4% females and 3% males. Only 4.4% of the 366 ticks marked were recaptured. There is strong evidence that locomotor activities of A. reflexus were restricted to host-seeking and returning to a resting-site after a blood meal. Activities of all postembryonic stages peaked from March through early June, irrespective of whether or not hosts were available to the ticks. The immature stages displayed another peak of activity in late summer/autumn. A total of 51 cases of A. reflexus-infested buildings was reported from the public to public-health offices in Berlin from April 1989 to March 1993, 45 of which represented tick invasions into human habitations. About 60% of them occurred in spring, thus largely confirming the results of seasonal trapping.

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

155-160 and 77-82

Source:

Folia parasitologica | 1994 Volume:41 | Number:2

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false