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Multiple species of ticks, including Ixodes scapularis (Say, Ixodida:Ixodidae), Amblyomma americanum (L., Ixodida:Ixodidae), and Dermacentor variabilis (Say, Ixodida:Ixodidae), occur in high and increasing abundance in both the northeast and southeast United States. North Carolina is at the nexus of spread of these species, with high occurrence and abundance of I. scapularis to the north and A. americanum to the south. Despite this, there are few records of these species in the Piedmont of North Carolina, including the greater Charlotte metropolitan area. Here, we update the known occurrence and abundance of these species in the North Carolina Piedmont. We surveyed for ticks using cloth drags, CO2 traps, and leaf litter samples at a total of 79 sites within five locations: Mecklenburg County, South Mountains State Park, Stone Mountain State Park, Duke Forest, and Morrow Mountain State Park, all in North Carolina, during the late spring, summer, and fall seasons of 2019. From these surveys, we had only 20 tick captures, illuminating the surprisingly low abundance of ticks in this region of North Carolina. Our results indicate the possibility of underlying habitat and host factors limiting tick distribution and abundance in the North Carolina Piedmont.
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Phenology of five tick species in the central Great Plains
The states of Kansas and Oklahoma, in the central Great Plains, lie at the western periphery of the geographic distributions of several tick species. As the focus of most research on ticks and tick-borne diseases has been on Lyme disease which commonly occurs in areas to the north and east, the ticks of this region have seen little research attention. Here, we report on the phenology and activity patterns shown by tick species observed at 10 sites across the two states and explore factors associated with abundance of all and life specific individuals of the dominant species. Ticks were collected in 2020–2022 using dragging, flagging and carbon-dioxide trapping techniques, designed to detect questing ticks. The dominant species wasA.americanum(24098, 97%) followed byDermacentor variabilis(370, 2%),D.albipictus(271, 1%),Ixodes scapularis(91, <1%)and A.maculatum(38, <1%).Amblyomma americanum,A.maculatum and D.variabiliswere active in Spring and Summer, whileD.albipictus and I.scapulariswere active in Fall and Winter. Factors associated with numbers of individuals ofA.americanumincluded day of year, habitat, and latitude. Similar associations were observed when abundance was examined by life-stage. Overall, the picture is one of broadly distributed tick species that shows seasonal limitations in the timing of their questing activity.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1920946
- PAR ID:
- 10506192
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Editor(s):
- Becker, Daniel
- Publisher / Repository:
- Public Library of Science (PLOS)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS ONE
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 1932-6203
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e0302689
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302689
