The Northern Fowl Mite (NFM) (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) is a cosmopolitan ectoparasite of birds and is the preeminent ectoparasite pest of poultry in North America. As is the case for other ectoparasites of mammals and birds, very little of NFM behavioral biology is understood, including its orientation mechanisms. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of heat and chemical cues by NFM for orientation to and upon hosts. In a choice assay for heat (35° C) vs. no heat (ambient temperature) NFM responded positively to a heat source within a 1 cm distance. A separate experiment controlling the initial vector in relation to a heat source showed that individual mites oriented toward heat with equal efficiency regardless of the starting vector. Mite orientation in relation to a heat source was directed (taxis) rather than undirected (kinesis), an interpretation supported by digital analysis of mite movement (turning frequency, mean angle, walking speed). Choice assays were conducted using extracts from chicken feathers as well as material deposited by mites within glass pipettes. The extracts were evaluated by evaporating a solution on one glass cover slip and clean solvent on another. The position of a mite moving on the two placed contiguously was monitored over a 10-minute period. Preliminary results indicate mites deposit a substance that influences subsequent mite distribution and presumably is responsible for the clustering of mites observed on- and off-host.
Species 1: Parasitiformes Macronyssidae Ornithonyssus sylviarum (northern fowl mite)
Keywords: taxis, ectoparasite
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA