Egg laying patterns of Amblyomma cohaerens (Donitz,1909) and Amblyomma variegatum(Fabricius,1794).

Abstract

A study was carried out to determine the egg-laying patterns of Amblyomma cohaerens and Amblyomma variegatum. Twenty individual engorged ticks of each species, obtained from cattle were used in this study. Each tick was reared in a petridish at room temperature (25±30 C) and relative humidity of 70 ± 5% until the end of oviposition. There was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) between the two species in the pre-oviposition
and oviposition periods, mean eggs laid per tick per day as well as the average total eggs laid per tick. There were variations in egg production among individual ticks and several peaks in egg production were observed during the day for both species of ticks. Between day 14 and 17, the differences in egg production were reflected by an increase for A. variegatum and a decrease for A. cohaerens