Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-z7ghp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-05T19:04:00.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The ecology of the sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus L. Some further aspects of activity, seasonal and diurnal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

A. Milne
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, King's College, Newcastle-on-Tyne

Extract

The idea has been mooted that the sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus L.) is active at different times on different host species. Tick-activity curves for sheep, deer, hare, rabbit, skylark and meadow-pipit are similar in form and timing. With these animals, therefore, there is no indication of any marked individual species effect on activity.

Where spring activity occurs, males, females and nymphs usually have similar and concurrent activity curves, but nymphs may occasionally have their peak 2–3 weeks later than adults. Larval activity is always later, the peak being several weeks after the female peak. The data for nymphs amend the general statement on activity in a previous paper by the present author.

Ticks are active during the hours of darkness but the activity-density then is considerably less than in daylight. This diurnal fluctuation in activity seems to follow fairly closely the diurnal fluctuation in atmospheric temperature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1947

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

MacLeod, J. (1932). Parasitology, 24, 382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacLeod, J. (1939). Bull. Ent. Res. 30, 103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milne, A. (1943). Ann. Appl. Biol. 30, 240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milne, A. (1945 a). Parasitology, 36, 142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milne, A. (1945 b). Ann. Appl. Biol., 32, 128.Google Scholar
Milne, A. (1946). Parasitology, 38, 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shcheglova, A. I. (1939). Problems of Ecology and Biocenology, 56, 83. Leningrad. (In translation.)Google Scholar