Using cuticular hydrocarbon composition to elucidate phylogenies in tick populations (Acari: Ixodidae).

Cuticular hydrocarbon composition is used to explain hypothetical phylogenies among sympatric and allopatric populations of Amblyomma cajennense, A. variegatum and Ixodes ricinus tick species. The method proposed here uses a parsimony analysis of endemicity by disjunct biochemical data (PAEDB) based in the pattern of cuticular hydrocarbons. The advantage of our approach is that information contained in fragments that are not conserved in all the individuals of a populations need not be discarded, and that only patterns of presence/absence are used. In such a way, PAEDB methodology provides a system which traces the pathway of a definite compound through populations, together with data of genetic relationships among specimens.