Parasitism of Ixodes (Multidentatus) auritulus Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae) on Birds from the City of Curitiba, State of Paraná, Southern Brazil

Vol. 94(5): 597-603

Márcia Arzua, Darci Moraes Barros-Battesti*/⁺

Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, Departamento de Zoológico, Prefeitura Municipal de Curitiba, Rua Benedito Conceição 407, 82810-080 Curitiba, PR, Brasil *Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brazil 1500, 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brasil

The tick-bird relationship of 56 specimens of birds (Passeriformes and Columbiformes) collected in the city of Curitiba, State of Paraná, between 1990 and 1995, among which 102 specimens of Ixodes (Multidentatus) auritulus were found and analyzed. New host records were also produced including the first report of I. auritulus on a Columbiformes bird in Brazil.

Key words: Ixodes auritulus - tick-bird relationship - new host birds - Paraná - Brazil

The description of Ixodes auritulus Neumann, 1904, was based on four females collected by Labrun on an undetermined bird from Punta Arenas, Chile. Three of the four type specimens are deposited in the Paris Museum of Natural History (access nos. 2474 and 2483) and one in the École Nationale de Vétérinaire, Toulouse (Arthur 1960). Dumbleton (1953), in his study of ticks of the New Zealand sub-region, described a male collected together with a female and a nymph, in a petrel's (Pelecanoides urinatrix) nest material, as I. auritulus. Nevertheless Arthur (1960), highlighted characters which distinguished the New Zealand populations from those I. auritulus sens. str., and Dumbleton (1961) considered the New Zealand forms collected on seabirds as subspecies designating I. auritulus zealandicus subsp. nov., and he considered the American forms collected on land birds as I. auritulus auritulus. Kohls and Clifford (1966) described the male of I. auritulus auritulus from Rio El Ganso, Magallanes, Chile, February 26, 1961, which is near Punta Arenas, the type area of I. auritulus. This specimen was deposited in the Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML 37869). Clifford et al. (1973) included this species in the Multidentatus subgenus.

In Brazil, specimens of I. (Multidentatus) auritulus, were collected on Knipolegus nigerrimus (Tyrannidae: Passeriformes), Thamnophilus ruficapillus and T. caerulescens (Formicariidae: Passeriformes) birds from Serra de Itatiaia, Atlantic Forest, State of Rio de Janeiro in 1922 (Cooley & Kohls 1945). However, these specimens were deposited in Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department Agriculture, accession no. (BAI-25088, one female, on K. nigerrimus collected by EG Holt in Feb. 2, 1922); U.S. National Museum, accession no. (Nat'l Mus-287, one female, on Tamnophilus ruficapillus) and (Nat'l Mus-322, five females, on T. caerulescens) collected by EA Chapin, in Feb. 2, and Feb. 10, 1922, respectively.

Specimens of I. auritulus were collected on Turdidae for the first time in the State of Paraná, during bird banding in the Passaúna Park of the city of Curitiba, during 1990 to 1992 (Arzua et al. 1994). These results led Marini et al. (1996) to investigate the prevalence of ticks on birds from mountain and lowland forest areas of the State of Paraná. However, during their investigation (from 1991 to 1995), they observed predominant infestation by Amblyomma larvae (94%) as oppossed to immature stages of Ixodes (not auritulus) (6%).

The purpose of this work was to investigate the mainly green areas (parks) of the city of Curitiba in order to increase the information available on the relationship between I. auritulus and birds and providing new host records.

  MATERIALS AND METHODS

  RESULTS

  DISCUSSION

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Dalila Ribeiro Viana, biologist of the Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, for the assistance in bird identification; to Rosana Ferrando, Isaura Camargo, Sebastião Pereira and Luiz Macedo for field assistance; to Dr Hilton F Japyassu, Instituto Butantan, for statistical assistance; to Dr João Luiz Horácio Faccini, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, for the critical analysis of the manuscript.

  REFERENCES

Fig.1 | Fig.2 | TABLE I | TABLE II | TABLE III

This work was supported in part by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).

⁺Corresponding author. Fax: +55 -11- 815.1505.

Received 1 April 1999

Accepted 7 June 1999

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