Responses of the
tropical bont tick Amblyomma variegatum to its
aggregation-attachment-pheromone and to host odour on a
servosphere
Copyright
C. McMahon &
P.M. Guerin
Institute of Zoology, University of
Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2007
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Male
A. variegatum ticks release a
mixture of o-nitrophenol (ONP) and
methyl salicylate (MS) from dermal
glands that develop soon after
infesting a host. These products
serve to attract conspecifics to the
attachment site. The behavioural
responses of A. variegatum adult
males and females were recorded on a
servosphere to vapours of both these
compounds presented in an air
stream. In the absence of the air
stream A. variegatum adults
walk on all eight legs but with long
halts. An air stream causes
continuous walking and induces a
reaching response where the first
leg pair is used to actively sample
the air. This increases the angular
velocity of the displacement and
reduces walking speed. Air-current
effects on behaviour are amplified
in the presence of vapours of ONP
and MS in the air flowing over the
ticks. Males and females are equally
attracted to low source doses of ONP
and MS presented alone. Vapours from
a 1:1 binary mixture of ONP and MS
attract over the 10 4 -fold source
dose range of 10ng to 100µg (10 9
-10 14 molecules/ml of air), but
attraction to vapours from the
binary mix is significantly reduced
at source doses over 100µg.
Attraction was higher to this 1:1
mixture than to the natural ratio
released from the dermal glands of
males, where ONP vapour
predominates. This indicates that
A. variegatum adults are
sensitive both to the quality and
quantity of the odour presented.
Although the response to ONP vapour
is variable on its own, it is
consistently attractive when
delivered with steer hair odour -
unattractive on its own. Moreover,
no change in angular velocity or
speed was observed in the the upwind
walk to this combination. This
supports the hypothesis that the
response to the pheromone is
enhanced by host odour.
Index terms:
Amblyomma, pheromone, host
relations, behaviour
Copyright:
The copyrights of this abstract
belong to the author (see
right-most box of title table).
This document also appears in
Session 13 – INSECT PHISIOLOGY,
NEUROSCIENCES, IMMUNITY AND CELL
BIOLOGY Symposium and Poster
Session, ABSTRACT BOOK II –
XXI-International Congress of
Entomology, Brazil, August
20-26, 2000.
and
McMahon C. and Guerin P.M.
(2000). Responses of the
tropical bont tick, Amblyomma
variegatum (Fabricius), to
its aggregation-attachment
pheromone presented in an air
stream on a servosphere. Journal
of Comparative Physiology A 186,
95-103
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