First report of Ixodes auritulus neumann (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) from the blackish cinclodes, Cinclodes antarcticus (Garnot) (Aves: Passeriformes: Furnariidae), with additional records of parasitism of Cinclodes spp. By this tick species

4 Pages·2001·1.9 MB·

by  R G Robbins

PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH.
103(2), 2001, pp. 265-268
FIRST REPORT OF IXODES AURITULUS NEUMANN
(ACARI: IXODIDA: IXODIDAE) FROM THE BLACKISH
CINCLODES, CINCLODES ANTARCTICUS (GARNOT) (AVES:
PASSERIFORMES: FURNARIIDAE), WITH ADDITIONAL RECORDS OF
PARASITISM OF CINCLODES SPP. BY THIS TICK SPECIES
Richard G. Robbins, Louis N. Sorkin, and Francois Vuilleumier
(RGR) Armed Forces Pest Management Board, Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
Washington, DC 20307-5001, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected]); (LNS) Division of
Invertebrate Zoology, Entomology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park
West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected]); (FV)
Division ofVertebrate Zoology, Ornithology, American Museum ofNatural History, Central
Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected])
—
Abstract. An engorged adult female of the tick Ixodes auritulus (Acari: Ixodida: Ix-
odidae) is reported from a nestling of Cinclodes antarcticus (Aves: Passeriformes: Fur-
nariidae) on Isla Gonzalo, Diego Ramirez Archipelago, off Chile's southernmost coast.
C
Additional collections of /. auritulus are described from fuscus in Peru and southern
Chile (Navarino Island), and from C. patagonicus in southern Argentina (Tierra del
Fuego). These are the first published records of any tick species from members of the
genus Cinclodes, which comprises about 13 species of ground- or hole-nesting ovenbirds
in the Andes and Patagonia.
Key Words: Ixodes, Acari, tick, Cinclodes, Aves, Diego Ramirez, Chile
The American Museum of Natural His- in the ornithological collections of the
tory (AMNH) has acquired a single fully AMNH (numbers 817070-817072). Be-
engorged (overall length 8.5 mm, width 4.5 cause their gonads were not detectable an-
mm) female tick specimen that had been atomically, the sex of these nestlings could
removed by one of us (FV) on 1 December not be determined by dissection. Two nest-
1985 from the neck of a dead nestling lings (AMNH 817070, body mass 63.4 g;
AMNH
blackish cinclodes, Cinclodes antarcticus 817071, body mass 60.5 g) were
(Garnot) (Aves: Passeriformes: Furnari- alive when collected and had been actively
idae), found away from its nest at the bot- fed by both parent birds. However, the par-
torn of a nesting burrow on Isla Gonzalo, asitized nestling (AMNH 817072; body
the second largest of southernmost Chile's mass 47.5 g) apparently succumbed to star-
Islas Diego Ramirez (56.30S, 68.44W). The vation after wandering from the nest to the
geography, vascular flora, and vertebrate burrow, where the parents may have failed
fauna ofthese remote islands have been de- to feed it.
scribed by Pisano (1972) and Pisano and The tick specimen's unique suite ofchar-
Schlatter (1981a, b). This was the only C. acters (hypostomal dentition 5/5 apically;
antarcticus nest found by us on Isla Gon- palpal segment I with large, anteriorly di-
zalo, and it contained three nestlings, now rected process; scutum with sparse, shallow
266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
punctations) enabled us to immediately (Sibley and Monroe 1990, Ridgely and Tu-
identify it as Ixodes (Multidentatus) auri- dor 1994, Vuilleumier, personal observa-
tulus Neumann, a regular parasite of pas- tion). Two subspecies of C. antarcticus
seriform, galliform and, less often, ciconi- have been described: nominate C. a. an-
iform (sensu Monroe and Sibley 1993) tarcticus from the Falkland Islands, where
birds throughout the Western Hemisphere it is now most abundant on outer islands
(Cooley and Kohls 1945, Arzua et al. 1994, (Woods 1988, Strange 1992, Vuilleumier
Foster et al. 1996, Arzua and Barros-Bat- 1996); and C. a. maculirostris Dabbene,
testi 1999). The specimens in the type se- which is localized, and scarce to rare, from
ries of/. auritulus came from Punta Arenas, southernmost South America, where it is
southern Chile, but the host bird was not largely restricted to the archipelagos of Ti-
identified (Neumann 1904). Among the erra del Fuego, Cape Horn, and Diego Ra-
passeriform birds parasitized by /. auritulus mirez (Hellmayr 1925, Ridgely and Tudor
in South America are species in the subos- 1994, Vuilleumier, personal observation).
cine families Conopophagidae, Formicari- Both subspecies occur mostly along sea-
idae, Furnariidae and Tyrannidae, and the shores, where they forage for invertebrates,
oscine families Parulidae, Thraupidae and such as marine amphipods and mollusks, in
Turdidae (Arzua and Barros-Battesti 1999, the dense mats of seaweed and kelp {Ma-
who followed the familial nomenclature of crocystis spp.) of the intertidal zone and in
Meyer de Schauensee "1983" [1982]). the peaty soil among tussocks of Poa fla-
Outside the Americas, /. auritulus has been bellata (Lamarck) Raspail (Poaceae), a
recorded from Antarctica (Gressitt and We- grass characteristic of the subantarctic zone
ber 1959), Australia (Roberts 1970), and (Moore 1983). Cinclodes antarcticus is of-
New Zealand (Dumbleton 1961). To date, ten found in or near breeding colonies or
/. auritulus has not been reported from con- resting aggregations of seabirds, especially
tinental Africa, though Arthur (1965) ar- penguins (Spheniscidae), albatrosses (Di-
gued that, in light of its very wide occur- omedeidae), diving-petrels (Pelecanoididae)
rence in the Southern Hemisphere, "it and petrels (Procellariidae), as well as such
would seem reasonable to believe" that this marine mammals as sea lions and fur seals
tick will one day be found there. In this (Otariidae) and elephant seals (Phocidae).
regard, Theiler (1959) cited two records of Indeed, C. antarcticus can be regarded as a
/. auritulus from Marion Island (46.52S, commensal of seals and seabirds in that it
37.5IE), which lies over 1,900 km south- both lives among them and consumes their
east of Cape Town, South Africa, but is ad- excreta. It is probably no coincidence that
ministered by that country. /. auritulus has been recorded from the
This—is the first published—report of/. au- same subantarctic areas where these sea-
ritulus or any tick species from Cinclo- birds and mammals breed or congregate in
des. As such, it begs the question ofwheth- nonbreeding groups. Thus, in New Zealand,
er /. auritulus parasitizes other members of Dumbleton (1953) reported /. auritulus
this genus, which comprises about 13 spe- from the nest material of the diving-petrel
cies of ground-foraging and hole- or bur- Pelecanoides urinatrix (Gmelin), a species
row-nesting South American ovenbirds that is also abundant in the Diego Ramirez
(sometimes called shaketails) found in open Islands (Schlatter 1984, Vuilleumier, per-
habitats. Species of Cinclodes chiefly in- sonal observation).
habit high-altitude streamsides in the Andes We have located only three additional
Mountains and Patagonia, and similar collections of /. auritulus from Cinclodes,
C
streamsides at lower elevations as well as all from species other than antarcticus:
seacoasts in the Tierra del Fuego and Cape 1 $ ex C. fuscus (Vieillot), the bar-winged
Horn Archipelagos and the Falkland Islands cinclodes, Peru: Cercapuquio (12.23S,
VOLUME NUMBER
103, 2 267
75.19W), 7.VI.1969, W.E. Dale, Rocky Acknowledgments
Mountain Laboratories (RML) No. 59286;
For their constructive comments on an
1 ?, 2 nymphs ex C. fuscus, Chile: Isla earlier version of this work, we thank our
Navarino (55.05S, 67.40W), 19.1.1964,
G.E. Watson, RML 117504; and nymph colleagues at the Armed Forces Pest Man-
1 agement Board: Commander George W.
ex C. patagonicus (Gmelin), the dark-bel-
Schuhz, U.S. Navy, and Lieutenant Colonel
lied cinclodes, Argentina: Bahia Buen Su- Richard N. Johnson, U.S. Army. We are es-
ceso (54.49S, 65.13W), 24.IV.1971, collec-
tor unknown (but likely either G.E. Watson pecially grateful to Lance A. Durden, Insti-
or J.R Angle of the U.S. National Museum tute of Arthropodology and Parasitology,
Georgia Southern University, Statesboro,
of Natural History, or David Bridge, as all
three men collected birds at Bahia Buen Su- for generously supplying all records of /.
auritulus in the U.S. National (formerly
ceso between 22 and 26 April 1971 (Payn-
RML Rocky Mountain Laboratories) Tick Collec-
ter 1995)), 118083. Cinclodesfuscus,
tion, where he is Associate Curator, and for
either a single species or a group of sister
species, has the largest range of any mem- providing copies of several otherwise in-
accessible publications. Fran9ois Vuilleu-
ber of its genus, occurring from northern
mier's visit to Islas Diego Ramirez was
Colombia and Venezuela to the Fuegian and
made possible through the courtesy of the
Cape Horn archipelagos. It is probably also Chilean Navy, and especially Comandante
themostcommon Cinclodes, breedingchief-
Marco Groetaers T, Governor of the Chi-
ly at high elevations in the Andes and Pa-
lean Antarctic Province in Puerto Williams,
tagonia, where it favors streamside habitats Navarino Island, and Comandante Eduardo
and moorlands (Vuilleumier, personal ob-
servation). Two individuals of C fuscus, Garcia D., Master of the Yelcho. In addi-
apparently paired, were studied by FV on tion, Vuilleumier thanks Dr. Tobias Salathe
for field assistance and gratefully acknowl-
Isla Gonzalo on 1 December 1985, but no edges the financial support received from
evidence ofnesting was detected. Cinclodes
the National Science Foundation, the Na-
patagonicus is a locally common species
tional Geographic Society, and the Sanford
that occurs in southern Chile and Argentina,
Fund for his field work in South America
including Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn,
generally and southern South America and
where it may live sympatrically and syn- the Falkland Islands in particular. The opin-
topically with C. antarcticus, to which it ions and assertions advanced herein are
may also be phylogenetically close. Al-
C those of the authors and are not to be con-
though both patagonicus and C. antarc-
strued as official or reflecting the views of
ticus live along seacoasts, the latter is de- the U.S. Departments of the Army or De-
cidedly more maritime and is more inti-
fense.
mately associated with marine birds and
mammals (Vuilleumier, personal observa-
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