Abstract
During its natural life cycle, the yellow dog tick, Haemaphysalis leachi, has three hosts, and it has to spend enough time on each of them to complete a blood meal. When irritated, the females of this tick species produce a cuticular secretion that contains a dog-repelling allomone. This improves the tick's chances of survival by deterring the dog from biting the tick off its body. Employing response-guided isolation techniques in conjunction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, the defensive allomone of H. leachi was found to consist of the six homologous aliphatic aldehydes from hexanal to undecanal. A mixture of synthetic versions of these six aldehydes in quantities corresponding to those secreted by one tick elicited strong aversion reactions in the majority of dogs of various breeds.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. M. E. Potgieter, veterinary surgeon, for the collection of ticks. The research was supported by Stellenbosch University and the National Research Foundation, Pretoria, South Africa.
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Burger, B.V., Marx, B., Le Roux, M. et al. Characterization of Dog Repellent Factor From Cuticular Secretion of Female Yellow Dog Tick, Haemaphysalis leachi. J Chem Ecol 32, 125–136 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-006-9356-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-006-9356-9