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Dermacentor

{{Short description|Genus of ticks}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Neogene|present}}

| image = Dermacentor occidentalis -Harmony Headlands State Park, California, USA-8.jpg

| image_caption = Dermacentor occidentalis

| taxon = Dermacentor

| authority = C.L.Koch, 1844 {{cite book |author=Don R. Arthur |year=1960 |series=Ticks |volume=5 |title=The genera Dermacentor, Anocentor, Cosmiomma, Boophilus, Margaropus |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=The genus Dermacentor: 1. General |pages=6–37 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k688AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA6}}

| type_species = Dermacentor reticulatus

| type_species_authority = (Fabricius, 1794)

| synonyms =

  • Amblyocentor Schulze, 1932
  • Anocentor Schulze, 1937

}}

Dermacentor is a genus of ticks in the family Ixodidae, the hard ticks. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with native species on all continents except Australia. Most are found in North America.{{cite journal |author1=C. E. Yunker |author2=J. E. Keirans |author3=C. M. Clifford |author4=E. R. Easton |year=1986 |title=Dermacentor ticks (Acari: Ixodoidea: Ixodidae) of the New World: a scanning electron microscope atlas |journal=Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington |volume=88 |issue=4 |pages=609–627 |url=http://www.afpmb.org/sites/default/files/pubs/techguides/tg26/References/Yunker%20Dermacentor%20Key.pdf |access-date=2013-09-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029204733/http://www.afpmb.org/sites/default/files/pubs/techguides/tg26/References/Yunker%20Dermacentor%20Key.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-29 |url-status=dead }}

Hosts of Dermacentor ticks include many large and small mammals, including horses, deer, cattle, lagomorphs, peccaries, porcupines, tapirs, desert bighorn sheep, and humans. The American dog tick (D. variabilis) is a member of the genus.{{cite web |author1=W. Chen |author2=P. E. Kaufman |url=http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in781 |title=American Dog Tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Arachnida: Ixodida: Ixodidae) |id=EENY-443 |website=Entomology and Nematology. Florida Cooperative Extension Service |publisher=University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences |year=2008 |access-date=December 4, 2013}}

Dermacentor species are vectors of many pathogens, including Rickettsia rickettsii, which causes the disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Coxiella burnetii, which causes Q fever, Anaplasma marginale, which causes anaplasmosis in cattle, Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia, Babesia caballi, which causes equine piroplasmosis, and the Flavivirus that causes Powassan encephalitis. Dermacentor ticks inject a neurotoxin that causes tick paralysis.

Species

As of 2019, about 41 species are placed in the genus:

References

{{Reflist|32em}}

External links

  • {{cite journal |author1=S. J. Dergousoff |author2=N. B. Chilton |title=Differentiation of three species of ixodid tick, Dermacentor andersoni, D. variabilis and D. albipictus, by PCR-based approaches using markers in ribosomal DNA |journal=Molecular and Cellular Probes |volume=21 |issue=5–6 |pages=343–348 |year=2007 |pmid=17544620 |doi=10.1016/j.mcp.2007.04.003 }}

{{Acari}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q2714520}}

Category:Ticks

Category:Acari genera

Category:Parasitic arthropods of mammals

Category:Ixodidae

Category:Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Koch