Rhipicephalus Explained

Rhipicephalus is a genus of ticks in the family Ixodidae, the hard ticks, consisting of about 74 or 75 species. Most are native to tropical Africa.[1]

Rhipicephalus ticks are commonly called 'the brown tick' as they are mostly brown in colour.[2] Most adult ticks in this genus do not have colour patterns on their scutum (inornate). This makes the species difficult to distinguish from one another because most are quite similar, but individuals of one particular species can be quite variable.[3] Ticks have traditionally been identified by examination of distinctive morphological features. Most of the characteristics used to identify species pertain to male specimens. The immature and female specimens are sometimes simply impossible to identify due to the lack of differential morphological features.[3] [4]

Many Rhipicephalus spp. are of economic, medical, and veterinary importance because of their blood feeding lifestyle. They are possible vectors of many pathogens in humans and animals. They can transmit pathogens that cause animal and human diseases, such as East Coast fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, rickettsiosis,[1] Boutonneuse fever, Lyme disease, Q fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever.[5] In addition to the infectious agents spread by ticks, tick bites can lead to allergic and toxic reactions.[6] [7] A toxic reaction occur when they inject a neurotoxin with their bite that leads to tick-caused paralysis.[1]

Boophilus was once considered a separate genus, but studies in the early 2000s resulted in Boophilus being made a subgenus of Rhipicephalus.[8] Although Boophilus has been included in the Rhipicephalus genus, their morphology is different from the typical Rhipicephalus species.

Species familiar in the domestic environment include the brown dog tick (R. sanguineus).

Sex pheromone studies

A number of Rhipicephalus spp. females produce phenol and p-cresol after being fed for six days. These compounds may act as sex pheromones since these compounds were shown to be the sex pheromone of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus. [9]

Etymology

The name Rhipicephalus is derived from the Greek word rhiphis, meaning "fan-like", and κεφαλή, kephalē, meaning "head". The two terms are related to the hexagonal basis capituli of Rhipicephalus.

Epidemiology

Rhipicephalus bursa is a carrier of babesiosis, theileriosis and anaplasmosis in domestic animals, of the Nairobi sheep disease, and an aggressive vector of the agents of the Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever and of the Q fever.[10]

Species

Subgenus Boophilus

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Olwoch, J. M., et al. (2007). Climate change and the genus Rhipicephalus (Acari: Ixodidae) in Africa. Onderstepoort J Vet Res 74(1), 45-72.
  2. Book: Walker, J.B., Keirans, J.E. & Horak, I.G. . The Genus Rhipicephalus (Acari, Ixodidae): A Guide to the Brown Ticks of the World. . Cambridge University Press . 2000 . 0-521-48008-6.
  3. Beati, L. and J. E. Keirans. (2001). Analysis of the systematic relationships among ticks of the genera Rhipicephalus and Boophilus (Acari: Ixodidae) based on mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA gene sequences and morphological characters. The Journal of Parasitology 87(1), 32.
  4. Book: The Ixodid Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) of Southern Africa . en . 10.1007/978-3-319-70642-9.
  5. http://webpages.lincoln.ac.uk/fruedisueli/FR-webpages/parasitology/Ticks/TIK/tick-key/background_rhipicephalus.htm#Rhipicephalusevertsi Rhipicephalus.
  6. Ahmed . Jabbar . Alp . Hatice . Aksin . Muhammed . Seitzer . Ulrike . 2007 . Current status of ticks in Asia . Parasitology Research . en . 101 . S2 . 159–162 . 10.1007/s00436-007-0696-3 . 0932-0113.
  7. Book: Daniel E. Sonenshine, R. Michael Roe . Overview: Ticks, People, and Animals in Biology of ticks, Volume 1 . 2014 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-937927-9 . Second . 862106136.
  8. Murrell . Anna . Barker . Stephen C. . 2003 . Synonymy of Boophilus Curtice, 1891 with Rhipicephalus Koch, 1844 (Acari: Ixodidae) . Systematic Parasitology . 56 . 3 . 169–172 . 10.1023/B:SYPA.0000003802.36517.a0 . 14707501 . 995415 .
  9. Wood . William F. . Leahy . Mary G.. . Galun . R. . Prestwich . G. D. . Meinwald . J. . Purnell . R. E. . Payne . J. . 1975 . Phenols as Sex Pheromones of Ixodid Ticks: A General Phenomen? . J. Chemical Ecology . 1 . 501-509 . 10.1007/BF00988590.
  10. Atanas D.. Arnaudov1. Dimo Y.. Arnaudov. Ixodid Ticks on Domestic Ruminants: an Investigation in the Valley of Maritsa River in Plovdiv Region, Bulgaria. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica. Suppl. 8. 223. January 1, 2017. 7091676742. 0324-0770.
  11. Apanaskevich, D. A., et al. 2013. A new species of Rhipicephalus (Acari: Ixodidae), a parasite of Red River hogs and domestic pigs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Journal of Medical Entomology 50(3), 479-84.
  12. Kitaoka . Shigeo . Suzuki . Hiroshi . 1983 . Studies on the Parasite Fauna of Thailand: 5. Parasitic ticks on mammals and description of Ixodes siamensis sp. n. and Rhipicephalus tetracornus sp. n. (Acarina: Ixodidae) . Tropical Medicine . 25 . 4 . 205–219 . 10069/4366 . free.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rhipicephalus".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.