First record of Amblyomma scalpturatum Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae) in the States of Paraná and Roraima, Brazil

SCIENTIFIC NOTE

First record of Amblyomma scalpturatum Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae) in the States of Paraná and Roraima, Brazil

Valeria C Onofrio^I; Márcia Arzua^II; Marcelo B Labruna^III; João L H Faccini^IV; Darci M Barros-Battesti^I

^ILab de Parasitologia, Instituto Butantan, Av Vital Brasil 1500, 05503-900, São Paulo, SP, Brasil; [e-mail]

^IIMuseu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, Prefeitura Municipal de Curitiba, R Benedito Conceição 407, 82010-080, Curitiba, PR, Brasil; [e-mail]

^IIIDepto de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Univ de São Paulo, Av Prof Orlando Marques de Paiva 87, 05508-000, São Paulo, SP, Brasil; [e-mail]

^IVDepto de Parasitologia Animal, Instituto de Veterinária, Univ Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, km 7, 23890-000, Seropédica, RJ, Brasil; [e-mail]

ABSTRACT

Amblyomma scalpturatum Neumann has been reported in Brazil in the northern (States of Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia) and mid-western regions (States of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul). It has been found in association with large and medium sized mammals, as Artiodactyla, Perissodactyla, Xenarthra and Carnivora. In this paper, this tick species is reported for the first time in the Brazilian states of Paraná and Roraima, southern and northern regions, respectively.

Key words: Geographical distribution, tick

Amblyomma scalpturatum was described by Neumann (1906) from females collected from Brazil and Bolivia. Although this author had reported that the type specimens of A. scalpturatum were deposited in the BMNH, Keirans & Hillyard (2001) commented they were not available for reexamination. Currently its geographical distribution is restricted to South America, with records for Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela (Guglielmone et al 2003, Onofrio et al 2006). In Brazil, it has been reported from the northern (States of Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia) and mid-western (States of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul) regions (Pereira et al 2000, Guimarães et al 2001, Labruna et al 2005a).

Adults of A. scalpturatum are commonly associated with large mammals (Peridossactyla: Tapiridae), but it is found on Artiodactyla (Tayassuidae, Suidae), Xenarthra (Myrmecophagidae) and Carnivora (Canidae) (Pereira et al 2000, Labruna et al 2005a). Nymphs and adults of this species were also recorded on humans by Aragão & Fonseca (1961), Guimarães et al (2001), Labruna et al (2005a,b) and Guglielmone et al (2006). According to Labruna et al (2004), this species has been found infected with rickettsial species of unknown pathogenicity to humans in Brazil.

In this paper we report for the first time the presence of A. scalpturatum in new areas in Brazil. An adult male was collected on a human being in "Parque Estadual Mata dos Godoy", municipality of Londrina, State of Paraná (southern Brazil). This specimen was deposited in the Acari Collection of "Instituto Butantan" (log number IBSP 8926). The specimen was previously identified as Amblyomma oblongoguttatum Koch (Arzua et al 2005), but a reexamination during the present study revealed it to be A. scalpturatum. Four adult females and one adult male were collected from vegetation in Alto Alegre municipality, State of Roraima (northern Brazil). They were deposited in the Collection of "Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul" [log numbers FZB 391 (two females), FZB 1127 (one male) and FZB 1263 (two females)]. Considering that this species is morphologically similar to Amblyomma incisum Neumann and Amblyomma latepunctatum Tonelli-Rondelli (Labruna et al 2005a), representative specimens of A. scalpturatum were prepared for scanning electron microscopy following techniques described by Corwin et al (1979). Details of gnathosoma and coxae are shown in Figs 1, 1a, 2, 2a, and Figs 3, 4, respectively. Light microscopy photographs of each sex were also presented to show the scutal ornamentation pattern (Figs 3a-4a).

 

When redescribing A. scalpturatum, A. latepunctatum, and A. incisum, Labruna et al (2005a) reported these three species to be sympatric within the Amazon region. Of these species, only A. incisum (referred as the south group) was reported to occur in the Atlantic rain forest areas in southern South America; it was commonly collected free in the environment of "Parque Estadual Mata dos Godoy" and in Adrianópolis municipality, State of Paraná (Arzua et al 2005). Because A. scalpturatum was found in the same place as A. incisum, this record suggests that both tick species are also sympatric in "Parque Estadual Mata dos Godoy".

This paper represents the first report of A. scalpturatum in southern Brazil. In addition, the distribution of this tick in northern Brazil is extended to the state of Roraima.

Acknowledgments

We thank E H Buckup, curator of the tick collection FZB/ RS. This study was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq (project number 478950/2004-7 to DMBB; academic career scholarship to DMBB, MBL and JLHF), and CAPES (Doctoral fellowship to VCO).

Received 05/II/09.

Accepted 17/VIII/09.

Edited by Gilgerto J de Moraes - ESALQ/USP

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 July 2010
• Date of issue
  June 2010

History

• Received
  05 Feb 2009
• Accepted
  17 Aug 2009