Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2005
Abstract
Spatial distribution patterns of black-legged ticks, Ixodes scapularis, in deciduous and coniferous woodlands were studied by sampling ticks in different woodland types and at sites from which deer had been excluded and by quantifying movement patterns of tick host animals (mammals and birds) at the Lighthouse Tract, Fire Island, NY, from 1994 to 2000. Densities of nymphal ticks were greater in deciduous than coniferous woods in 3 of 7 yr. Only engorged ticks survived the winter, and overwintering survival of engorged larvae in experimental enclosures did not differ between deciduous and coniferous woods. Nymphs were not always most abundant in the same forest type as they had been as larvae, and the habitat shift between life stages differed in direction in different years. Therefore, forest type by itself did not account for tick distribution patterns. Nymphal densities were lower where deer had been excluded compared with areas with deer present for 3 yr after exclusion, suggesting that movement patterns of vertebrate hosts influenced tick distribution, but nymphal densities increased dramatically in one of the enclosures in the fourth year. Therefore, movements of ticks on animal hosts apparently contribute substantially to tick spatial distribution among woodland types, but the factor(s) that determine spatial distribution of nymphal I. scapularis shift from year to year.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Ginsberg, H. S., Zhioua, E., Mitra, S., Fischer, J., Buckley, P. A., Verret, F., Underwood, H. B., & Buckley, F. G. (2005). Woodland Type and Spatial Distribution of Nymphal Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae). Environmental Entomology, 33(5), 1266-1273. doi: 10.1603/0046-225X-33.5.1266
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1603/0046-225X-33.5.1266
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Comment
Howard S. Ginsberg is from the Department of Plant Sciences.
Elyes Zhioua, Shaibal Mitra, P. A. Buckley and Francine G. Buckley are from the Department of Natural Resources Science.