QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by KAUFMAN, S. E. Articles by PHILLIPS, J. E. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by KAUFMAN, S. E. Articles by PHILLIPS, J. E.

Journal of Experimental Biology 93,225-242 (1981)
Published by Company of Biologists 1981

Fluid Balance in the Argasid Tick, Ornithodorus Moubata, Fed on Modified Blood Meals

SUSAN E. KAUFMAN ¹, WILLIAM R. KAUFMAN ², and JOHN E. PHILLIPS ³

¹ Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5; Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G3
² Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5; Department of Zoology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E9
³ Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5

1. The argasid tick Ornithodorus moubata Murray was fed on modified blood meals, the ionic strength and/or osmotic pressure of which was varied by additions of NaCl or glucose, and by dilution with distilled water or isosmotic glucose. The following parameters were monitored: total volume increase of tick, total volume of meal ingested, net increase in haemolymph volume, volume of coxal fluid excreted and ion concentrations and osmotic pressures of the gut contents, haemolymph and coxal fluid, as well as potential differences across the gut lumen.

2. Absorption of fluid from the gut into the haemolymph appeared to be linked to the active transport of Na⁺ and Cl^-, although the rate of absorption was an inverse function of the prevailing osmotic gradient across the gut epithelium.

3. The tick can maintain a reasonably constant [Na⁺] and [Cl^-] in the haemolymph when fed meals in which the concentration of these ions varies up to 6-fold, but only if the meal remains isosmotic with blood.

4. The rate and volume of coxal fluid production are direct functions of the rate and volume of fluid absorption by the gut epithelium. Thus, during the feeding cycle, the coxal organ appears to function chiefly in an osmo- and volume-regulatory capacity in this species of argasid tick.