The overall goal of this research was to examine the interactions of adult
Amblyomma maculatum Koch, the Gulf Coast tick, with respect to their utilization of
hosts and to male-female cross strain interaction. Historical data along with two Petri dish
experiments were used to understand male-female interaction in the field, and to
determine if the aggregation attachment pheromone (AAP) produced by fed males of
varying strains is attractive to geographic specific strains of unfed female ticks.
It was hypothesized that questing female Gulf Coast ticks are attracted to fed
males and can discriminate between grazing cattle with fed males and those without.
Archival control data from ear tag studies conducted in 1985, 1987, and 1991 were
analyzed to better understand female Gulf Coast tick behavior in the field relative to fed
male tick presence. Females were found primarily on hosts with an abundance of male
ticks, leading one to conclude that female ticks are attracted to hosts infested with male
ticks. It was also discovered that females were more likely to be found on a host as the
number of males on a host increased. A femaleÂs ability to detect hosts parasitized by
males likely allows them to feed and mate on-host in a fairly limited period of time. A Petri dish bioassay was used to evaluate female preference to varying
geographic strains of fed males. One experiment was designed to determine if a female
preferred fed males from her geographically specific strain over other males. A second
experiment evaluated female response to a non-specific male in the absence of her
geographically specific male. While female responses to fed males regardless of strain
were higher than to unfed male control ticks, no statistical differences in female response
could be determined. The Petri dish bioassay was determined to be inadequate to test
female preference over several populations of pheromone producing males, and a more
intensive procedure was proposed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3933 |
| Date | 16 August 2006 |
| Creators | Sleeba, Sarah Beth |
| Contributors | Teel, Pete D. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 499997 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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