Scutum (ticks)
As Scutum (lat. For Sign ') refers to a sclerotic back plate on the main body portion ( Idiosoma ) with ticks . It is a formation of chitin belonging to the sclerites . The scutum is characteristic of all stages of development of the ticks and is absent in the leather ticks . In females it usually only covers the front part of the idiosoma, in males the entire back. In some genera, the scutum has a typical drawing. The remaining part of the female tick body is made up of the non-sclerosed alloscutumcovered, which in sober females often lies in folds. This allows female ticks to eat a larger meal of blood than males.
Female hedgehog tick with a brownish scutum, which only covers the front third of the idiosoma.
Male alluvial forest tick . The scutum covers the whole idiosoma and is decorated in white.
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literature
- Ruth Leventhal, Russell F. Cheadle: Medical Parasitology: A Self-Instructional Text . FA Davis, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8036-2637-9 , pp. 120 .
- John L. Capinera: Encyclopedia of Entomology, Volume 4 . Springer Science & Business Media, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4020-6242-1 , p. 3779 .