1: Parazitologiia 2001 Sep-Oct;35(5):361-75 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut  

[Article in Russian]

The closely related species Ixodes persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi are vectors of
agents tick-born encephalitis and Lyme disease. These species have two great
disjunctive sympatric distribution areas (fig. 1), where both species inhabit
the same biotopes, and during the same season. In these conditions there are
prerequisites of contacts of opposite sexes of the different species during
ambushing the hosts on vegetation. Sequence of "switching on" of the
morphological, physiological, and hostparasite factors of reproductive
isolation has been established. The features and the range of manifestation of
these factors at different combinations of sexes and species of the partners
have been revealed. The studied factors, such as precopulative and
postcopulative components of the mechanism of reproductive isolation of I.
persulcatus and I. pavlovskyi were considered. A hypothesis for sympatric
origin of the species as a result of specialization the {*filter*}s of I.
persulcatus to mammals, and I. pavlovskyi to birds is proposed.

PMID: 11871251 [PubMed - in process]