| dc.description.abstract |
Studies were undertaken during 1948-1950 on Boophilus microplus under field conditions in southern Queensland to determine the duration of the non-parasitic stages, and to relate this information to tick incidence on cattle. In the area where the observations were made, the population of ticks on cattle is high in summer and autumn and low in minter and spring. Each week throughout the investigation engorged female ticks, freshly fallen from cattle, were placed in a pasture plot and their subsequent history recorded. Concurrently, observations were made on the changes in tick population on a dairy herd on an adjacent farm. Female ticks exposed on the plot between April and July produced virtually no progeny, and it is probable that the ticks in the pasture traversed by the dairy cattle exhibited a similar, though less severe, inhibition of reproduction. This failure to reproduce, combined with the dying out of larvae and protracted developmental periods of eggs, reduced to very low levels the larval population available to infest cattle during the months of August |
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