Mating Behavior and Reproduction of the Lone Star Tick,Amblyomma americanum

Abstract

When a bovine stanchioned in an enclosed stall and guinea pigs maintained in the laboratory were used as hosts for adult Amblyomma americanum (L.), individual male ticks were observed to inseminate 18–37 females in 43–127 days after feeding for 7–32 days before the 1st mating. Preoviposition period of replete females averaged 6.5 days (range 3–10 days). There was a highly significant correlation (r = +0.87) between the weight of the female and the weight of the egg mass she laid, but there was no significant correlation between the weight of the female and the preoviposition period. The fertility of males (determined by average percent hatch of eggs of females they inseminated) was not significantly different. Relationships existed but were inconsistent between: (1) the preoviposition periods and the weights of egg masses, (2) the percent hatch of egg masses and the order of insemination, engorgement, and detachment of females in a sequential series with 1 male, and (3) the percent hatch of eggs and the size of the egg mass.