The Aggregation Response of the Gulf Coast Tick1 on Cattle

Abstract

Male and female Amblyomma maculatum Koch, the Gulf Coast tick, exhibit an assembling or aggregating response in their selection of attachment sites on cattle prior to mating. Thus both sexes are attracted by and attach adjacent to preattached ticks of the same as well as the opposite sex. However, when males and females are attached on separate sites on the same host, newly introduced ticks of both sexes prefer to attach near attached males. Also, when males and females are confined on separate areas of cattle for one week and then allowed to migrate, the females move to the attached males.