Ornithodoros erraticus

Ornithodoros erraticus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Ixodida
Family: Argasidae
Genus: Ornithodoros
Species:
O. erraticus
Binomial name
Ornithodoros erraticus
(H. Lucas, 1849)
Synonyms

Heteronyms:

See also potential synonym with:

Ornithodoros erraticus is a species of tick in the family Argasidae. The tick was described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1849 as Argas erraticus from individuals collected in northern Algeria.

Description

The tick is native to the Middle East and Mediterranean. It is one of the more common soft ticks to bite humans. Their main food sources in Spain are pigs; the tick has been found in pig pens in the provinces of Salamanca, Badajoz, and Huelva. The only human habitats the tick can enter are places in poor condition.

Pathology

This species carries the pathogenic Qalyub and African swine fever viruses and the spirochetes Borrelia crocidurae and Borrelia hispanica. When the tick is infected by B. crocidurae, the disease affects its genetic organ, the testes in males and the ovaries in females. The tick transmits the African swine fever virus only in Spain and Portugal.

The tick feeds at night, ingesting blood to repletion in about 15 minutes. Small mammals are the most common hosts; this species rarely bites humans, preferring other vertebrates. The tick has substances in its saliva, such as antihemostatic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory molecules, which help the tick get blood from the host and transfer pathogens easily. Major factors in their feeding relationship are mating, recent feeding, and size.

Some strains of entomopathogenic fungi have been found to be effective against this tick and others in the related genus Ornithodoros in a study which concluded the fungi could be used as biocontrol agents for argasid ticks; the name of this is called hyperparasitism.

References

  1. 1 2 Carios erraticus Lucas, 1849 in GBIF Secretariat (2016). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via https://www.gbif.org/species/2184504 Archived 2017-10-02 at the Wayback Machine on 2017-10-02.
  2. 1 2 Nijhof A.M., Guglielmone A.A. & Horak I.G. (2017). TicksBase (version 5.6, Jun 2005). In: Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. (2017). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 29 September 2017. Digital resource at http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/4e7795c13f4daacac24b26026b35939f Archived 2017-10-02 at the Wayback Machine . Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858.
  3. ↑ Hallan, Joel (24 March 2008). "Argasidae" (text). Catalog of the Acari. Texas A&M University Department of Entomology. Retrieved 17 December 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ↑ Mans, Ben J.; Featherston, Jonathan; Kvas, Marija; Pillay, Kerry-Anne; de Klerk, Daniel G.; Pienaar, Ronel; de Castro, Minique H.; Schwan, Tom G.; Lopez, Job E.; Teel, Pete; Pérez de León, Adalberto A.; Sonenshine, Daniel E.; Egekwu, Noble I.; Bakkes, Deon K.; Heyne, Heloise (1 January 2019). "Argasid and ixodid systematics: Implications for soft tick evolution and systematics, with a new argasid species list". Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases. 10 (1): 219–240. doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.09.010. ISSN 1877-959X.
  5. 1 2 3 Estrada-Peña, A.; Jongejan, F. (September 1999). "Ticks feeding on humans: a review of records on human-biting Ixodoidea with special reference to pathogen transmission". Experimental and Applied Acarology. 23 (9): 688. doi:10.1023/A:1006241108739. PMID 10581710. S2CID 3351559.
  6. ↑ Oleaga-Pérez, A; Pérez-Sánchez, R; Encinas-Grandes, A (1990). "Distribution and biology of Ornithodoros erraticus in parts of Spain affected by African swine fever". The Veterinary Record. 126 (2): 32–37. doi:10.1136/vr.126.2.32 (inactive 11 July 2025). PMID 2301109.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  7. 1 2 National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Medical Sciences; Division Of Medical Sciences, National Research Council (U.S.) (1962). Tropical health: a report on a study of needs and resources. National Academies. p. 497. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  8. ↑ Kurstak, Edouard; R.G. Marusyk; F.A. Murphy & M.H.V. Van Regenmortel (1990). Applied Virology Research, Volume 2: Virus Variability, Epidemiology, and Control. New York, New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation. p. 341. ISBN 978-0-306-43359-7.
  9. ↑ Mullen, Gary; Mullen, Gary Richard; Durden, Lance (2009). Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Academic Press. p. 519. ISBN 978-0-12-372500-4. Archived from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  10. ↑ D. Feigin, Ralph (2004). Textbook of pediatric infectious diseases, Volume 2. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 1696. ISBN 978-0-7216-9329-3. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  11. ↑ Oleaga, Ana; Escudero-Población, Andrés; Camafeita, Emilio; Pérez-Sánchez, Ricardo (November 2007). "A proteomic approach to the identification of salivary proteins from the argasid ticks Ornithodoros moubata and Ornithodoros erraticus (2007)" (PDF). Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 37 (11): 1149–59. doi:10.1016/j.ibmb.2007.07.003. hdl:10261/10349. PMID 17916501. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Zabalgogeazcoa, I; Oleaga, A; Pérez-Sánchez, R (20 December 2008). "Pathogenicity of endophytic entomopathogenic fungi to Ornithodoros erraticus and Ornithodoros moubata (Acari: Argasidae)" (PDF). Veterinary Parasitology. 158 (4): 336–343. doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2008.09.019. PMID 18976863. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  13. ↑ Helmy, N; Khalil, GM; Hoogstraal, H (February 1983). "Hyperparasitism in Ornithodoros erraticus". Journal of Parasitology. 69 (1): 229–33. doi:10.2307/3281305. JSTOR 3281305. PMID 6827441.