Reproductive incompatibility between Amblyomma maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) group ticks from two disjunct geographical re
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Reproductive incompatibility between Amblyomma maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) group ticks from two disjunct geographical regions within the USA Michelle E. J. Allerdice1,2 · Alyssa N. Snellgrove1 · Joy A. Hecht1 · Kris Hartzer1 · Emma S. Jones3 · Brad J. Biggerstaff3 · Shelby L. Ford1,4 · Sandor E. Karpathy1 · Jesus Delgado‑de la Mora5 · David Delgado‑de la Mora5 · Jesus D. Licona‑Enriquez6 · Jerome Goddard2 · Michael L. Levin1 · Christopher D. Paddock1 Received: 7 July 2020 / Accepted: 5 October 2020 © This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020
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 · Rickettsia parkeri · Arizona · Hybridization
* Michelle E. J. Allerdice [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Experimental and Applied Acarology
Introduction The taxonomic relationships among the Amblyomma maculatum tick group have been contested and dynamic for more than 175 years since Koch initially described several species belonging to this group (Koch 1844; Kohls 1956). Former members include Amblyomma rubripes Koch, Amblyomma ovatum Koch, Amblyomma parvitarsum Neumann, Amblyomma neumanni Ribaga, and multiple other taxa which have since been collapsed in synonymy (Kohls 1956; Camicas et al. 1998). The most recent analysis defines only three valid s
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