PATTERN OF TICK SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF A FRAGMENT OF FOREST IN AN URBAN AREA, THROUGH A SURVEY BY CO2 TRAP

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study of the ixodofauna in fragments of woods in an urban area is important to the knowledge of species of tick and the dynamic among wild and domestic hosts, allowing to subsidize proposals for the conservation of the fauna and the control of zoonoses such as Brazilian spotted fever. To accomplish the survey, CO2 traps were built up in six different sites of the forest, during a oneyear period, totalizing 12 collections. The ixodids were collected by monitoring the traps and the adjacent vegetation during two hours and put in ethanol 70° GL. At the laboratory they were identified under the stereoscopic optics. At the end of a one-year period of study 2.122 ixodids were colleted, being 793 larvae (37,3%) and 1.277 nymphs (57,8%) of the genus Amblyomma and 102 were adults (4,9%) of the Amblyomma species. The most constant species was Amblyomma cajennense, present in 83,33% of the collections (71 specimen) followed by Amblyomma dubitatum, present in 50% (30 specimen), and Amblyomma calcaratum, 8,33% (one specimen). The observations showed that in the observed environment the populations of Ixodidae have an aggregate distribution, possibly because of the aggregate distribution of the resource, in the case wild hosts.