title: The influence of temperature and humidity on oviposition and hatchability of Amblyomma lepidum (Dönitz, 1808) (Acarina: Ixodidae) under laboratory conditions.
abstract: The effect of temperature and humidity on the oviposition and hatchability of Ablyomma lepidum was studied. Above 90% of adult ticks applied on calves succeeded to attach and feed through 6-13 days. The development process was studied under three levels of temperature: 27, 35 and 40 degrees C, each level with five sets of humidity. Temperature rather than humidity affected all developmental parameters. It was found that high temperature of 40 degrees C, even at high humidity 75.5-97.8% significantly affected pre-oviposition, oviposition, pre-hatching periods, egg mass weight and egg conversion ratio (p<or=0.0001), hatching period and hatchability (p<or=0.05). The effect of humidity on the pre-hatching period and hatchability was highly significant (p<or=0.0001), while it was less significant on pre-oviposition and hatching periods (p<or=0.05). It could be concluded that the development process is influenced by the interaction of both temperature and humidity. However, humidity above 90% and temperature range of 27-35 degrees C seem to be the optimum requirements for ideal development of A. lepidum.
authors.affiliation: College of Education, Department of Biology, University of Juba, P.O. Box 321/1, Khartoum, Sudan. amiraelnahas@gmail.com
authors.forename: E Amira
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Binni
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Yagi
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mohammed
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006813:Humidity; D026863:Ixodidae / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010058:Oviposition / Q000502:physiology*; D010063:Ovum / Q000502:physiology*; D013696:Temperature