PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 103(1), 2001, pp. 54-59 STATISTICAL MEASURES OF ASSOCIATION BETWEEN AMBLYOMMA SABANERAE STOLE (ACARI: IXODIDA: IXODIDAE) AND THE FURROWED WOOD TURTLE, RHINOCLEMMYS AREOLATA (DUMERIL AND BIBRON) (TESTUDINES: EMYDIDAE), IN NORTHERN BELIZE Richard G. Robbins, Steven G. Platt, Thomas R. Rainwater, and Wendy Weisman (RGR) Armed Forces Pest Management Board, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC 20307-5001 U.S.A. (e-mail:
[email protected]); (SGP, WW) Wildlife Conservation Society, 185th Street and Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460-1099 U.S.A. (e-mail:
[email protected] and
[email protected]); (TRR) Institute of Environ-mental and Human Health, Texas Tech University, 1207 Gilbert Drive, Lubbock, TX 79416 U.S.A. (e-mail:
[email protected]) Abstract. — Between April 1997 and June 1998, 159 tick collections, comprising 411 specimens, were made from 261 adults and juveniles of the furrowed wood turtle, Rhin-oclemmys areolata (Dumeril and Bibron), on a tract of pine forest and savanna in northern Belize. All ticks were determined to be Amblyomma sabanerae Stoll, a common parasite of testudines in the lowland tropics of Central America. Male ticks were collected from more turtles (94) than were females (48) or immatures (82). However, despite the likeli-hood that male turtles have greater home ranges, significantly more ticks parasitized fe-male turtles than males. It is thought that overdispersion of both ticks and turtles declines in the equable climate of the Neotropics, in which case female turtles, being larger than males, would be expected to acquire more ticks. Collections of immature A. sabanerae were more frequently made on fleshy areas of R. areolata, but the mean number of nymphs and larvae collected from anterior areas was not significantly different from that for posterior areas. Key Words: Acari, Ixodidae, Amblyomma sabanerae, host relationships, Belize Neotropical turtles and tortoises (Testu-studies to date being those of Schneider et dines) are the principal hosts of only 8 tick al. (1971) and Ernst and Ernst (1977). This species: the argasid Ornithodoros transver-is lamentable because, in recent years, tes-sus (Banks), and the ixodids Amblyomma tudine populations have been declining pre-crassum Robinson, A. humerale Koch, A. cipitously worldwide (Ernst and Barbour macfarlandi Keirans, Hoogstraal and Clif-1989), with the result that of 247 nominal ford, A. pilosum Neumann, A. sabanerae species listed by King and Burke (1989), Stoll, A. testudinis (Conil), and A. usingeri 70 (28%) appear in Appendix I (species Keirans, Hoogstraal and Clifford (Hoogs-threatened with extinction that are or may traal and Aeschlimann 1982). Yet, the ecol-be affected by trade) or Appendix II (spe-ogy, population dynamics and disease re-cies not necessarily threatened with extinc-lationships of these acarines have seldom tion but that may become so unless trade is been addressed, the most comprehensive strictly regulated) of the Convention on In-
Localities extracted from OCR text.
BioStor
