ArticlePloS one2014
Towards an evolutionary understanding of questing behaviour in the tick Ixodes ricinus.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Scientist's Opinion on Climate Change and Hard Ticks (Ixodidae).Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A natural barrier: tick-repellent potential of a spruce-derived volatile blend against Hyalomma excavatum and Ixodes ricinus.Pest management science · 2026Article
- First detection of one of the tick-borne lymphadenopathy (TIBOLA) etiological agent in ticks from a highly frequented sub-urban forest near Paris, France.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Predictive temperature-dependency of tick questing activity in France and relevance to Lyme disease risk in Connecticut.Experimental & applied acarology · 2025Article
- Infection with Babesia bovis alters metabolic rates of Rhipicephalus microplus ticks across life stages.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Seasonal dynamic of ticks infesting cattle (Bos indicus) farms in two provinces in Cambodia.PloS one · 2025Article
- Metabolic rate does not scale with body size or activity in some tick species.Experimental & applied acarology · 2024Article
- GIS-ODE: linking dynamic population models with GIS to predict pathogen vector abundance across a country under climate change scenarios.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Quantity of questing black-legged ticks and associated micro-scale environmental data collected from four Suburban Parks near New York City.Data in brief · 2024Article
- Winter activity of Ixodes ricinus in Sweden.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- The Behavior ofLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The climate niche of the invasive tick species Hyalomma marginatum and Hyalomma rufipes (Ixodidae) with recommendations for modeling exercises.Experimental & applied acarology · 2023Article
- Factors responsible for Ixodes ricinus presence and abundance across a natural-urban gradient.PloS one · 2023Article
- Behavioral Repertoire on a Vertical Rod-An Ethogram inLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Ticks on the move-climate change-induced range shifts of three tick species in Europe: current and future habitat suitability for Ixodes ricinus in comparison with Dermacentor reticulatus and Dermacentor marginatus.Parasitology research · 2022Article
- Climate Changes Exacerbate the Spread ofInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Meteorological and climatic variables predict the phenology of Ixodes ricinus nymph activity in France, accounting for habitat heterogeneity.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Local Community Composition Drives AvianVeterinary sciences · 2022Article
- A novel laboratory method to simulate climatic stress with successful application to experiments with medically relevant ticks.PloS one · 2022Article
- Morphological and molecular identification of medically important questing Dermacentor species collected from some recreational areas of Peninsular Malaysia.Systematic parasitology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The tick Ixodes ricinus finds its hosts by climbing vegetation and adopting a sit-and-wait tactic. This "questing" behaviour is known to be temperature-dependent, such that questing increases with temperature up to a point where the vapor pressure deficit (drying effect) forces ticks down to rehydrate in the soil or mat layer. Little if any attention has been paid to understanding the questing of ticks from an evolutionary perspective. Here we ask whether populations from colder climatic conditions respond differently in terms of the threshold temperature for questing and the rate of response to a fixed temperature. We find significant variation between populations in the temperature sensitivity of questing, with populations from cooler climates starting questing at lower temperatures than populations from warmer temperatures. Cool climate populations also quest sooner when the temperature is held constant. These patterns are consistent with local adaptation to temperature either through direct selection or acclimation and challenge the use of fixed thresholds for questing in modeling the spread of tick populations. Our results also show how both time and temperature play a role in questing, but we are unable to explain the relationship in terms of degree-time used to model Arthropod development. We find that questing in response to temperature fits well with a quantitative genetic model of the conditional strategy, which reveals how selection on questing may operate and hence may be of value in understanding the evolutionary ecology of questing.
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