title: Blood digestion in Ornithodorus moubata Murray sensu stricto Walton females (Ixodoidea: Argasidae) II. Modifications of midgut cells related to the digestive cycle and to the triggering action of mating.
abstract: The cellular organisation of midgut cells (see Grandjean, in press) depends on the digestive cycle which follows a blood meal. The phases of this cycle are characterised in O. moubata, and various "cell-types" are described, correlated and discussed. Mating triggers digestion: a) by an increased intracellular digestion (including the formation of heterophagolysosomes) during the rapid phase of digestion; b) by reactivating midgut cells in starving females, which then may perform vitellogenesis and lay few normal eggs.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood; D003307:Copulation / Q000502:physiology; D004064:Digestive System / Q000166:cytology; D004068:Digestive System Physiological Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D013987:Ticks / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*