Reproductive Incompatibility Between Amblyomma maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) Group Ticks From Two Disjunct Geographical Regions Within the USA

Authors

• Michelle E. Allerdice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Alyssa N. Snellgrove, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Joy A. Hecht, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Kris Hartzer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Emma S. Jones, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Brad J. Biggerstaff, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Shelby L. Ford, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Sandor E. Karpathy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Jesus Delgado-de la Mora, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
• David Delgado-de la Mora, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
• Jesus D. Licona-Enriquez, Hospital de Pediatría Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI
• Jerome Goddard, Mississippi State University
• Michael L. Levin, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Christopher D. Paddock, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ORCID

Allerdice: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2758-3245; Snellgrove: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6221-4731; Hecht: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2786-0057; Biggerstaff: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3105-3530; J. Delgado-de la Mora: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4188-2989; Goddard: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2617-7141

MSU Affiliation

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology

Creation Date

2026-10-30

Abstract

The Amblyomma maculatum Koch group of ixodid ticks consists of three species: A. maculatum, A. triste, and A. tigrinum. However, since Koch described this group in 1844, the systematics of its members has been the subject of ongoing debate. This is especially true of A. maculatum and A. triste; recent molecular analyses reveal insufficient genetic divergence to separate these as distinct species. Further confounding this issue is the discovery in 2014 of A. maculatum group ticks in southern Arizona (AZ), USA, that share morphological characteristics with both A. triste and A. maculatum. To biologically evaluate the identity of A. maculatum group ticks from southern Arizona, we analyzed the reproductive compatibility between specimens of A. maculatum group ticks collected from Georgia (GA), USA, and southern Arizona. Female ticks from both Arizona and Georgia were mated with males from both the Georgia and Arizona Amblyomma populations, creating two homologous and two heterologous F1 cohorts of ticks: GA ♀/GA ♂, AZ ♀/AZ ♂, GA ♀/AZ ♂, and AZ ♀/GA ♂. Each cohort was maintained separately into the F2 generation with F1 females mating only with F1 males from their same cohort. Survival and fecundity parameters were measured for all developmental stages. The observed survival parameters for heterologous cohorts were comparable to those of the homologous cohorts through the F1 generation. However, the F1 heterologous females produced F2 egg clutches that did not hatch, thus indicating that the Arizona and Georgia populations of A. maculatum group ticks tested here represent different biological species.

Keywords

Amblyomma maculatum, Amblyomma triste, Arizona, hybridization, Rickettsia parkeri

Publication Date

10-22-2020

Publication Title

Experimental and Applied Acarology

Publisher

Springer

First Page

543

Last Page

557

Recommended Citation

Allerdice, M.E.J., Snellgrove, A.N., Hecht, J.A. et al. Reproductive incompatibility between Amblyomma maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) group ticks from two disjunct geographical regions within the USA. Exp Appl Acarol 82, 543–557 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-020-00557-4