&lt;strong&gt;A review of &lt;em&gt;Ixodes&lt;/em&gt; (Acari: Ixodidae) parasitizing wild birds in Panama, with the first records of &lt;em&gt;Ixodes auritulus&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ixodes bequaerti&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;

Bermúdez, Sergio; Torres, Sugeys; Aguirre, Yusseff; Domínguez, Lillian; Vega, Juan A. Bernal

doi:10.11158/saa.20.8.1

Cited by 8 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Some of the ixodid ticks in Panama also show clear environmental preferences. For example, certain species of Dermacentor and Ixodes seem to be restricted to wetter, montane environments [ 27 , 30 ]. On the other hand, these particular habitats are characterized by extraordinary vertebrate diversity, yet the adult ticks of these species still predominantly feed from a limited number of closely related host species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data were collected throughout Panama, part of the world’s second largest ‘megadiversity hotspot’ for endemic vertebrates [ 14 ]. Over forty species of ticks have been reported from Panama, divided over eight genera and two families [ 27 – 30 ]. Panama also has a wide variety of environmental conditions and habitats, ranging from mangrove swamps to tropical forests and from savannahs to the páramo.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Host specificity in a diverse Neotropical tick community: an assessment using quantitative network analysis and host phylogeny

et al. 2016

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BackgroundHost specificity is a fundamental determinant of tick population and pathogen transmission dynamics, and therefore has important implications for human health. Tick host specificity is expected to be particularly high in the tropics, where communities of ticks, hosts and pathogens are most diverse. Yet the degree to which tropical tick species are host-specific remains poorly understood. Combining new field data with published records, we assessed the specificity of tick-host associations in Panama, a diverse Neotropical region.MethodsThe resulting dataset includes 5,298 adult ticks belonging to 41 species of eight genera that were directly collected from 68 vertebrate host species of 17 orders. We considered three important aspects of tick host specificity: (i) the relative ecological importance of each host species (structural specificity); (ii) relatedness among host species (phylogenetic specificity); and (iii) spatial scale-dependence of tick-host relationships (geographical specificity). Applying quantitative network analyses and phylogenetic tools with null model comparisons, we assessed the structural and phylogenetic specificity across three spatial scales, ranging from central Panama to countrywide. Further, we tested whether species-rich tick genera parasitized a wider variety of hosts than species-poor genera, as expected when ticks specialize on different host species.ResultsMost tick species showed high structural and/or phylogenetic specificity in the adult stage. However, after correcting for sampling effort, we found little support for geographical specificity. Across the three scales, adult ticks tended to be specific to a limited number of host species that were phylogenetically closely related. These host species in turn, were parasitized by tick species from distinct genera, suggesting switching among distantly related hosts is common at evolutionary timescales. Further, there was a strong positive relationship between the taxonomic richness of the tick genera and that of their hosts, consistent with distinct tick species being relatively specific to different host species.ConclusionsOur results indicate that in the adult stage, most ticks in the diverse Neotropical community studied are host specialists. This contrasts with earlier assessments, but agrees with findings from other host-parasite systems. High host specificity in adult ticks implies high susceptibility to local tick-host co-extirpation, limited ability to colonize new habitats and limited potential for interspecific pathogen transmission.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1655-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host specificity in a diverse Neotropical tick community: an assessment using quantitative network analysis and host phylogeny

et al. 2016

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“…Panama is also rich in ticks, both in species and in numbers (Fairchild et al., 1966). Over forty species of ticks from seven genera and two families have been reported so far, and new species continue to be described (Fairchild et al., 1966, Apanaskevich and Bermúdez, 2013, Nava et al., 2014; Bermúdez et al., 2015a). Tick-host associations in Panama have been recorded from a wide variety of environmental conditions and habitats, ranging from mangrove swamps to tropical forests and from savannahs to high-altitude cloud forests (Fairchild et al., 1966).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used data from Dunn, 1923, Fairchild et al., 1966, Bermúdez et al., 2009, Bermúdez et al., 2010, Bermúdez et al., 2011, Bermúdez et al., 2013, Bermúdez et al., 2015b, Bermúdez et al., 2015a, Apanaskevich and Bermúdez, 2013, Murgas et al., 2013, García et al., 2014, Esser et al., 2016, and Miller et al. (2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host body size and the diversity of tick assemblages on Neotropical vertebrates

Esser

Foley

Bongers

et al. 2016

International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife

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Identifying the factors that influence the species diversity and distribution of ticks (Acari: Ixodida) across vertebrate host taxa is of fundamental ecological and medical importance. Host body size is considered one of the most important determinants of tick abundance, with larger hosts having higher tick burdens. The species diversity of tick assemblages should also be greater on larger-bodied host species, but empirical studies testing this hypothesis are lacking. Here, we evaluate this relationship using a comparative dataset of feeding associations from Panama between 45 tick species and 171 host species that range in body size by three orders of magnitude. We found that tick species diversity increased with host body size for adult ticks but not for immature ticks. We also found that closely related host species tended to have similar tick species diversity, but correcting for host phylogeny did not alter the relationships between host body size and tick species diversity. The distribution of tick species was highly aggregated, with approximately 20% of the host species harboring 80% of all tick species, following the Pareto principle or 20/80 Rule. Thus, the aggregated pattern commonly observed for tick burdens and disease transmission also holds for patterns of tick species richness. Our finding that the adult ticks in this system preferentially parasitize large-bodied host species suggests that the ongoing anthropogenic loss of large-bodied vertebrates is likely to result in host-tick coextinction events, even when immature stages feed opportunistically. As parasites play critical roles in ecological and evolutionary processes, such losses may profoundly affect ecosystem functioning and services.

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“…Finally, Apanaskevich and Bermúdez (2017) reported Ixodes bocatorensis Apanaskevich and Bermudez, 2017 from Colombia. Considering all these reports, the known tick fauna of Colombia currently includes 58 species (15 Argasidae and 43 Ixodidae), although as recently reported the presence of I. brunneus needs confirmation (Bermúdez et al, 2015). The present study was undertaken to expand our current knowledge of the biology of ticks in Colombia by collecting hard ticks (Ixodidae) from domestic animals and vegetation across 10 of Colombia's Departments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%