Lancaster, J. L.

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Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 10 Article 91957Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma AmericanumJ. L. LancasterUniversity of Arkansas, FayettevilleFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Entomology CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academyof Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationLancaster, J. L. (1957) "Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma Americanum," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 10 , Article 9.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/9THE LONE STAR TICK, AMBLYOMMA AMERICANUM38A Contribution Toward a Monograph ofthe Ticks of ArkansasJ. L. Lancaster, Jr.University of ArkansasThe lone star tick probably accounts for95 percent or more of the total tick population in Arkan-sas. No person, his pets, or domestic animals areimmune from attack. It is not only a pest; it mayalso transmit tularemia and Rooky Mountain fever(Calhoun, 1955).IDENTIFICATIONThe lone star tick derives its name from theconspicuous-white spot in the posterior angle ofthe scutum of the female. Often this spot has tingesof green or red. The male is characteristicallymarked by two horseshoe shaped areas a t the pos-terior-lateral portion of the body. The whitishspots which form the horseshoe outline may alsohave tinges of green or red. Usually these mark-ings on both sexes are very white and contrastsharply with the reddish or reddish-brown back-ground of the body.The palpi of all stages are long, the secondsegment being much longer than the other segments.This condition is typical of the genus Amblyomma.Since species other than the lone star are seldomtaken in Arkansas, this oharaoter is of use indis-tinguishing the lone star nymphs and larvae fromthe immature stages of other ticks.The synonomy of the species and the charactersof allstages are given by Cooley and Kohls (1944),GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTIONThis tick is primarily southern in distribu-tion. It is definitely the most important tickspecies in Arkansas and probably of the neighbor-ing states of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee,Mississippi, and Louisiana. According to Hooker,et,al. (1912) the type locality for the species38Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957THE LONE STAR TICK39is Pennsylvania or New Jersey. One speoimen isreported from Labrador and it has been collectedin Guatemala, Guiana, Brazil, and Mexico ( Cooleyand Kohls, 1944).In Arkansas it occurs wherever the habitat issuitable. Aocording to Calhoun (1954) there arefewer ticks in eastern Arkansas.HOSTSThe records of collections show that dogs, cat-tle, men, and horses are most frequent hosts and inthat order of importance. Ground birds are hosts,particularly to the larval stage (Calhoun 1954).Young chickens have proven to be excellent hostsfor feeding this stage when maintaining cultures.The cottontail rabbit is host to the immature stagesbut the writer has not found an adult from the ex-amination of twenty rabbits, Cooley and Kohls(1944) report one male from a cottontail and onehundred adults from a "rabbit,"LIFE AND PERSONAL HISTORY INARKANSASThe ticks pass through the winter as unfed nymphsor adults. Spring collections indicate a ratio ofabout two nymphs to each adult. They do not passthrough the winter as larvae. The overwintered a-dults begin to attach to cattle in mid-December innorthwestern Arkansas and the first females com-plete engorgement about raid-February. Attachmentand engorging of adults continues until early July,The females complete engorgement and drop from thehost to the ground where the eggs are deposited inlarge masses. Under summer conditions of tempera-ture the preoviposition period is about a week andthe oviposition period is eleven days. Hatchingof the eggs requires 25 days.The young larvae tend to b e gregarious, oftenforming a tight mass of tiny ticks which pass througha pre-feeding period. Then the mass moves u p onlow growing grasses or shrubs where the mass hangsever ready t 0 drop onto a small animal that maypass by. Once on the animal they feed to repletionand drop off in an average of four days.Molting t 0 the nymphas stage requires twelvedays. Since the engorged larvae, from which they39Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/9ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE40develop, may be scattered or dropped ina cluster,depending on the activity of the host, the nymphstend to be less gregarious. However, havebeen taken in a spaoe of less than a square yard.This stage must also find a host; the host may bea rabbit, dog, or large animal. Cattle sometimesare infested with large numbers of these ticks.The nymph requires four days to complete feeding,then it drops to the ground.Molting to the adult stage takdfl twenty -onedays. The adults of a current season ordinarilydo not feed, but pass through the winter. It isbelieved that cessation of feeding is a responseto day-length (Lancaster 1955 )» Feeding of the a-dult the following spring may take as few as sixdays or as long as sixteen days. This apparentlydepends on how favorable the s ite of attachment isand on whether or not mating oocurs. Once the fe-male has become attached she does not move. Afterfeeding a short while she is then ready to be fer-tilized. Once fertilization occurs the femalescomplete feeding often within a few hours.Larvae are most plentiful in August; nymphs inApril, May, and August; and adults April throughJune. Larvae have been found from June 10 to Oc-tober 3^« None of the life history stages arereadily found in northwestern Arkansas in Novemberand early December.HABITATIt has been found (Lancaster 1955) that about70 per cent of the ticks colleoted were taken fromthe brush. Only one to one and one-half per centwere found in open situations such as improved pas-tures. It is also illustrated that where no cat-tle were kept the tick population tends to be less.In wooded areas near Huntsville where no cattlehad been grazed there were practically no ticks,whereas in woods located in grazing areas, largenumbers of ticks were found.Laboratory and field studies ( Lancaster and Me-Killan, 1955) indioate that for the habitat to besuitable the relative humidity must be high* Thesestudies show that there is a relationship betweenground cover and relative humidity. In open pas-ture 0 n the days records were made, the relative40Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957THE LONE STAR TICK41humidity averaged 32 per oent, rarely ever goingover 60 per oent. This low humidity in the labora-tory prevented oviposition and larvae were unableto survive any prolonged period of exposure to it.This accounts for finding most of the ticks in thebrushy or wooded areas.CONTROLThe control of this tick is reasonably wellworked out for the situations where control is de-sired, There are essentially three types of con-trol situations. These are personal protection,protection of pets, and protection of cattle.The simplest and most effective means of secur-ing personal protection is to avoid areas wherelarge numbers of ticks occur. When this method be-comes undesirable, the use of repellents appliedto skin or clothing willprovide a high degree ofprotedtion. Any commercial repellent containingappreciable amounts of dimethyl phthalate is ade-quate for short exposures to tick infestation. Forpersons who must work 0 r remain in "ticky" areasfor long periods, olothing treatment with a for-mula containing N-Butylaoetanilide has been shownto be effective for nearly two weeks (Brennan,1948). This material cannot be applied directlyto the skin.Protection of pets may be accomplished by fre-quent observation and treat ing witha rotenone dustor dip. Hunting dogs, such as beagles, fox or coonhounds, and bird dogs, should be treated frequentlyenough to prevent the adult females from droppingoff and depositing eggs. These eggs hatch and cre-ate tick infestations in lawns. Asa general rule,treatment of hunting dogs should be made not laterthan one week after exposure to infestation.If a tick infestation does develop in a lawn,sprayingwith DDT, chlordane, or dieldrin willwipeit out if the application is thorough.The recommendation for the protection of dairycows is to pasture them on open, improved pastureswhich can be mowed. This is in line with the pro-grams of the dairy husbandrymen and agronomists.The effectiveness of this is illustrated by thedata already presented.Where open, improved pastures are not obtainable41Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/942for dairy cows, methoxychlor at the rate of 8 poundsof 5^ per cent wettable powder or l-l/2 pounds of25 per cent lindane wettable powder in100 gallonsof water is recommended as a spray. If desired, amixture of these two ingredients can be applied.Such a mixture combines the quiok-killing effectof the lindane with the longer residual of themethoxychlor. Applications should b e made everythree weeks from the time ticks begin to attach tothe cows in spring until July 1.On beef cattle the principal recommendation isto spray with toxaphene at a rate of 10 pounds of40 per cent wettable powder in100 gallons of waterevery three weeks. Use of toxaphene is not permis-sible on producing dairy cows because of possiblemilk contamination. Chlordane, DDT, 0 r BHC or acombination of DDT-BHC may be used on beef cattle(Barnes, 1952).SUMMARYThe life and seasonal history of the lone startick is given as it occurs in the vicinity of Fay-etteville, Arkansas. Laboratory and field studieson the effect of humidity illustrate the importanceof this factor as itaffects the abundance of thisspecies .Control measures for personal protection, pro-tection of pets and domestic animals are given..LITERATURE CITED(l) Barnes, Gordon and J. L. Lancaster, Jr. 1952.Protect your cattle. Agri, Ext. Ser. Leaf-let No. 137 "(Rev. ).(2) Brennan, James. 1948. Field tests wi^hrepellents . Public Health Reports 63*339-•(3) Calhoun, Ernest L. 1954, Natural occurrenceof tularemia in the lone star tick, Ambly-omma americanum ( Linn. ), and in dogs in Ar-ka lisas. Am. Jour* Trop. Med. and Hyg. 3 tJ>bO-(4) Calhoun, Ernest L., and Hugh I. Alford, Jr.1955* Incidence of tularemia and Rocky Moun-tain spotted fever among common ticks ofARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE42Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957THE LONE STAR TICKIii•43Arkansas . Am. Jour. Trop. i'ed. and Hyg. 4:310-317-(5) Cooley, R. A., and Glen M. Kohls, 1944. Thegenus Amblyomma (ixodidae) in the United"States, Jour. Par. 30:77-111.(6) Hooker, W. A., F. C. Bishopp, and H. P. Wood.1912. The life history and bionomics of someNorth American tiok3. USDA~"B"ur,of Ent. Bui.(7) Lanoaster, J. L. 1955« Biology and seasonalhistory of the lone star tick in* NorthwestArkansas . "Jour. Econ. Ent. 48:295-297.(8) Lancaster, J. L. and Harlan McMillan. 1955*The effects of relative humidity on the lonestar tick. Jour. Econ. Ent. 48:338-339.43Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/9

Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma Americanum

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 10 Article 9 1957 Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma Americanum J. L. Lancaster University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Lancaster, J. L. (1957) "Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma Americanum," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 10 , Article 9. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/9 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. THE LONE STAR TICK, AMBLYOMMA AMERICANUM38A Contribution Toward a Monograph ofthe Ticks of ArkansasJ. L. Lancaster, Jr.University of ArkansasThe lone star tick probably accounts for95 percent or more of the total tick population in Arkan-sas. No person, his pets, or domestic animals areimmune from attack. It is not only a pest; it mayalso transmit tularemia and Rooky Mountain fever(Calhoun, 1955).IDENTIFICATIONThe lone star tick derives its name from theconspicuous -white spot in the posterior angle ofthe scutum of the female. Often this spot has tingesof green or red. The male is characteristicallymarked by two horseshoe shaped areas a t the pos-terior-lateral portion of the body. The whitishspots which form the horseshoe outline may alsohave tinges of green or red. Usually these mark-ings on both sexes are very white and contrastsharply with the reddish or reddish-brown back-ground of the body.The palpi of all stages are long, the secondsegment being much longer than the other segments.This condition is typical of the genus Amblyomma.Since species other than the lone star are seldomtaken in Arkansas, this oharaoter is of use indis-tinguishing the lone star nymphs and larvae fromthe immature stages of other ticks.The synonomy of the species and the charactersof allstages are given by Cooley and Kohls (1944),GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTIONThis tick is primarily southern in distribu-tion. It is definitely the most important tickspecies in Arkansas and probably of the neighbor-ing states of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee,Mississippi, and Louisiana. According to Hooker,et,al. (1912) the type locality for the species38Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957THE LONE STAR TICK39is Pennsylvania or New Jersey. One speoimen isreported from Labrador and it has been collectedin Guatemala, Guiana, Brazil, and Mexico ( Cooleyand Kohls, 1944).In Arkansas it occurs wherever the habitat issuitable. Aocording to Calhoun (1954) there arefewer ticks in eastern Arkansas.HOSTSThe records of collections show that dogs, cat-tle, men, and horses are most frequent hosts and inthat order of importance. Ground birds are hosts,particularly to the larval stage (Calhoun 1954).Young chickens have proven to be excellent hostsfor feeding this stage when maintaining cultures.The cottontail rabbit is host to the immature stagesbut the writer has not found an adult from the ex-amination of twenty rabbits, Cooley and Kohls(1944) report one male from a cottontail and onehundred adults from a "rabbit,"LIFE AND PERSONAL HISTORY INARKANSASThe ticks pass through the winter as unfed nymphsor adults. Spring collections indicate a ratio ofabout two nymphs to each adult. They do not passthrough the winter as larvae. The overwintered a-dults begin to attach to cattle in mid-December innorthwestern Arkansas and the first females com-plete engorgement about raid-February. Attachmentand engorging of adults continues until early July,The females complete engorgement and drop from thehost to the ground where the eggs are deposited inlarge masses. Under summer conditions of tempera-ture the preoviposition period is about a week andthe oviposition period is eleven days. Hatchingof the eggs requires 25 days.The young larvae tend to b e gregarious, oftenforming a tight mass of tiny ticks which pass througha pre-feeding period. Then the mass moves u p onlow growing grasses or shrubs where the mass hangsever ready t 0 drop onto a small animal that maypass by. Once on the animal they feed to repletionand drop off in an average of four days.Molting t 0 the nymphas stage requires twelvedays. Since the engorged larvae, from which they39Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/9ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE40develop, may be scattered or dropped ina cluster,depending on the activity of the host, the nymphstend to be less gregarious. However, havebeen taken in a spaoe of less than a square yard.This stage must also find a host; the host may bea rabbit, dog, or large animal. Cattle sometimesare infested with large numbers of these ticks.The nymph requires four days to complete feeding,then it drops to the ground.Molting to the adult stage takdfl twenty -onedays. The adults of a current season ordinarilydo not feed, but pass through the winter. It isbelieved that cessation of feeding is a responseto day-length (Lancaster 1955 )» Feeding of the a-dult the following spring may take as few as sixdays or as long as sixteen days. This apparentlydepends on how favorable the s ite of attachment isand on whether or not mating oocurs. Once the fe-male has become attached she does not move. Afterfeeding a short while she is then ready to be fer-tilized. Once fertilization occurs the femalescomplete feeding often within a few hours.Larvae are most plentiful in August; nymphs inApril, May, and August; and adults April throughJune. Larvae have been found from June 10 to Oc-tober 3^« None of the life history stages arereadily found in northwestern Arkansas in Novemberand early December.HABITATIt has been found (Lancaster 1955) that about70 per cent of the ticks colleoted were taken fromthe brush. Only one to one and one-half per centwere found in open situations such as improved pas-tures. It is also illustrated that where no cat-tle were kept the tick population tends to be less.In wooded areas near Huntsville where no cattlehad been grazed there were practically no ticks,whereas in woods located in grazing areas, largenumbers of ticks were found.Laboratory and field studies ( Lancaster and Me-Killan, 1955) indioate that for the habitat to besuitable the relative humidity must be high* Thesestudies show that there is a relationship betweenground cover and relative humidity. In open pas-ture 0 n the days records were made, the relative40Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957THE LONE STAR TICK41humidity averaged 32 per oent, rarely ever goingover 60 per oent. This low humidity in the labora-tory prevented oviposition and larvae were unableto survive any prolonged period of exposure to it.This accounts for finding most of the ticks in thebrushy or wooded areas.CONTROLThe control of this tick is reasonably wellworked out for the situations where control is de-sired, There are essentially three types of con-trol situations. These are personal protection,protection of pets, and protection of cattle.The simplest and most effective means of secur-ing personal protection is to avoid areas wherelarge numbers of ticks occur. When this method be-comes undesirable, the use of repellents appliedto skin or clothing willprovide a high degree ofprotedtion. Any commercial repellent containingappreciable amounts of dimethyl phthalate is ade-quate for short exposures to tick infestation. Forpersons who must work 0 r remain in "ticky" areasfor long periods, olothing treatment with a for-mula containing N-Butylaoetanilide has been shownto be effective for nearly two weeks (Brennan,1948). This material cannot be applied directlyto the skin.Protection of pets may be accomplished by fre-quent observation and treat ing witha rotenone dustor dip. Hunting dogs, such as beagles, fox or coonhounds, and bird dogs, should be treated frequentlyenough to prevent the adult females from droppingoff and depositing eggs. These eggs hatch and cre-ate tick infestations in lawns. Asa general rule,treatment of hunting dogs should be made not laterthan one week after exposure to infestation.If a tick infestation does develop in a lawn,sprayingwith DDT, chlordane, or dieldrin willwipeit out if the application is thorough.The recommendation for the protection of dairycows is to pasture them on open, improved pastureswhich can be mowed. This is in line with the pro-grams of the dairy husbandrymen and agronomists.The effectiveness of this is illustrated by thedata already presented.Where open, improved pastures are not obtainable41Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/942for dairy cows, methoxychlor at the rate of 8 poundsof 5^ per cent wettable powder or l-l/2 pounds of25 per cent lindane wettable powder in100 gallonsof water is recommended as a spray. If desired, amixture of these two ingredients can be applied.Such a mixture combines the quiok-killing effectof the lindane with the longer residual of themethoxychlor. Applications should b e made everythree weeks from the time ticks begin to attach tothe cows in spring until July 1.On beef cattle the principal recommendation isto spray with toxaphene at a rate of 10 pounds of40 per cent wettable powder in100 gallons of waterevery three weeks. Use of toxaphene is not permis-sible on producing dairy cows because of possiblemilk contamination. Chlordane, DDT, 0 r BHC or acombination of DDT-BHC may be used on beef cattle(Barnes, 1952).SUMMARYThe life and seasonal history of the lone startick is given as it occurs in the vicinity of Fay-etteville, Arkansas. Laboratory and field studieson the effect of humidity illustrate the importanceof this factor as itaffects the abundance of thisspecies .Control measures for personal protection, pro-tection of pets and domestic animals are given. .LITERATURE CITED(l) Barnes, Gordon and J. L. Lancaster, Jr. 1952.Protect your cattle. Agri, Ext. Ser. Leaf-let No. 137 "(Rev. ).(2) Brennan, James. 1948. Field tests wi^hrepellents . Public Health Reports 63*339- •(3) Calhoun, Ernest L. 1954, Natural occurrenceof tularemia in the lone star tick, Ambly-omma americanum ( Linn. ), and in dogs in Ar-ka lisas. Am. Jour* Trop. Med. and Hyg. 3 tJ>bO-(4) Calhoun, Ernest L., and Hugh I. Alford, Jr.1955* Incidence of tularemia and Rocky Moun-tain spotted fever among common ticks ofARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE42Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957THE LONE STAR TICKIii•43Arkansas . Am. Jour. Trop. i'ed. and Hyg. 4:310-317-(5) Cooley, R. A., and Glen M. Kohls, 1944. Thegenus Amblyomma (ixodidae) in the United"States, Jour. Par. 30:77-111.(6) Hooker, W. A., F. C. Bishopp, and H. P. Wood.1912. The life history and bionomics of someNorth American tiok3. USDA~"B"ur,of Ent. Bui.(7) Lanoaster, J. L. 1955« Biology and seasonalhistory of the lone star tick in* NorthwestArkansas . "Jour. Econ. Ent. 48:295-297.(8) Lancaster, J. L. and Harlan McMillan. 1955*The effects of relative humidity on the lonestar tick. Jour. Econ. Ent. 48:338-339.43Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 9https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/9

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Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma Americanum

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