RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Soft ticks perform evaporative cooling during blood-feeding
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.06.30.180968
DO 10.1101/2020.06.30.180968
A1 Claudio R. Lazzari
A1 Aurélie Fauquet
A1 Chloé Lahondère
A1 Ricardo N. Araújo
A1 Marcos H. Pereira
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/01/2020.06.30.180968.abstract
AB Feeding on the blood of warm-blooded vertebrates is associated to thermal stress in haematophagous arthropods. It has been demonstrated that blood-sucking insects protect their physiological integrity either by synthesising heat-shock proteins or by means of thermoregulatory mechanisms. In this work, we describe the first thermoregulatory mechanism in a tick species, Ornithodoros rostratus. By performing real-time infrared thermography during feeding on mice we found that this acarian eliminates big amounts of fluid (urine) through their coxal glands; this fluid quickly spreads over the cuticular surface and its evaporation cools-down the body of the tick. The spread of the fluid is possible thanks to capillary diffusion through the sculptured exoskeleton of Ornithodoros. We discuss our findings in the frame of the adaptive strategies to cope with the thermal stress experienced by blood-sucking arthropods at each feeding event warm-blooded hosts.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.