SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE MATING BEHAVIOR IN IXODES PERSULCATUS AND IXODES RICINUS TICKS (ACARINA, IXODIDAE): DIFFERENCES IN A SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF THE SPECIES OF BORELLIA

About author:

H. V. Dubinina, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya Emb. 1, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russia

Acknowledgments:

This research was supported, in part, by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 98 - 04 - 49899, the Danish Research Council grant 9600864, a n d the grant "Biological Diversity - 2000" from the State Science and Technology-Program .

Annotation:

The mating behavior is demonstrated to be different in Ixodes ricinus L. and I. persulcatus Schulze. In I. ricinus the male and female are found to prefer to copulate mainly on the horizon-tal surface whereas in I.persulcatus they copulate most often on the vertical one. Also in I.persulcatus the copulation time is shown to be shorter when the copulation takes place on the vertical surface. The coupling per se is achieved in a shorter time when performed on the vertical surface. The infestation of one or both partner ticks with Borrelia increases the copulation time in I.persulcatus. I.ricinus ticks, heavily infested with Borrelia afzelii, refrain from coupling. The loco-motor activity of coupling pairs of I. persulcatus is less than in non-infested ones.Ticks, which were kept in pairs, are found to be infested in a larger scale than those being kept alone. The transmis-sion of Borrelia garinii in the taiga tick, I. persul-catus, from males to females is recorded. In 4.5% cases B. garinii were identified in unengorged larvae of I.persulcatus collected in the field. Pre-liminary data suggest that namely B. afzelii is transmitted from the male to female in I. ricinus.

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