Seagle Madeline P, Vierling Maximilian R, Almeida Ryan J, Clary D Jacob, Hidell Will, Scott Erin V, Vargas Carlos, Smith Kevin G
Department of Biology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC.
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
J Med Entomol. 2021 Jan 12;58(1):489-492. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjaa171.
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.
多种蜱类，包括肩突硬蜱（Say，硬蜱目：硬蜱科）、美洲钝缘蜱（L.，硬蜱目：硬蜱科）和变异革蜱（Say，硬蜱目：硬蜱科），在美国东北部和东南部的分布数量众多且呈增长趋势。北卡罗来纳州处于这些蜱类传播的交汇点，北部肩突硬蜱的出现率和数量很高，南部则是美洲钝缘蜱。尽管如此，在北卡罗来纳州的皮埃蒙特地区，包括大夏洛特都会区，这些蜱类的记录却很少。在此，我们更新了北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特地区这些蜱类的已知出现情况和数量。2019年春末、夏季和秋季，我们在北卡罗来纳州的五个地点，即梅克伦堡县、南山州立公园、石山州立公园、杜克森林和莫罗山州立公园，共79个地点，使用布旗法、二氧化碳诱捕器和落叶样本对蜱类进行了调查。通过这些调查，我们仅捕获了20只蜱，这表明北卡罗来纳州这个地区的蜱数量出奇地少。我们的结果表明，可能存在潜在的栖息地和宿主因素限制了北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特地区蜱的分布和数量。
