title: Life cycle of Haemaphysalis doenitzi (Acari: Ixodidae) under laboratory conditions and its phylogeny based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA.
abstract: The paper investigated the life cycle of the hard tick Haemaphysalis doenitzi under laboratory conditions and its phylogeny based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA. The results revealed that the complete life cycle of H. doenitzi requires a mean duration of 109.6 days ranging from 91 to 137 days and the average prefeeding, feeding and premoulting periods of larvae, nymphs and females and the eggs hatching period are 18.7, 26.9, 38.9, and 25.1 days, respectively. In addition, the weight of engorged females is highly correlated with the number of egg masses laid (r = 0.936, P < 0.001). The female reproductive efficiency index and reproductive fitness index are 13.4 and 12.8, respectively. The mean weight of the engorged nymphs (2.77 mg) moulting to females is much higher than those (1.68 mg) moulting to males, which could be used as an index to predict sexes in this species. The ratio of male to female is 1:1.01. Moreover, multisequence alignments and phylogenetic tree constructed based on the mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences suggest that H. doenitzi is genetically close to H. longicornis.
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Hebei Province, College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: Xuejie
authors: X
authors: Chen
authors: Zhijun
authors: Z
authors: Yu
authors: Lida
authors: L
authors: Guo
authors: Lingxia
authors: L
authors: Li
authors: Hao
authors: H
authors: Meng
authors: Duo
authors: D
authors: Wang
authors: Renjie
authors: R
authors: Liu
authors: Jingze
authors: J
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001835:Body Weight; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D026863:Ixodidae / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008297:Male; D010058:Oviposition; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S