[Exoskeleton anomalies among taiga tick males from populations of the Asiatic part of Russia].

The taiga tick (Icodes persulcatus, Schulze, 1930) is the main and most epidemiologically dangerous vector of tick-born encephalitis virus (TBEV) and Borrelia in most parts of Russia's territory (Alekseev et al., 2008). The purpose of this article is to describe the incidence rate of I. persulcatus males with exoskeleton anomalies in populations of the Asiatic part of Russia. A total of 2630 taiga tick males were morphologically analyzed. They were collected in Far Eastern, Siberian and Ural Federal Districts (respectively, FEFD, SFD, UFD) in 15 geographically remote locations. It is shown that in all populations there are adult ticks with impaired exoskeleton, among which two types dominate: twin dents at the back of conscutum (P11), and uneven surface of conscutum - a "shagreen skin" (P9). The frequency of abnormalities in males from the areas with temperate monsoon and temperate continental climate (FEFD) was definitely lower (6.5 ± 1.05 %), than in individuals from the territories of SFD (29.7 ± 1.03 %) and UFD (25.8 ± 3.93 %) with continental and sharply continental climate. FEFD territory is also characterized by a less number of males having two simultaneous exoskeleton anomalies. Similar district-preconditioned differences in the frequency of recorded body distortions are also typical of females, with a higher percentage of deviant individuals in comparison with males. Thus, the identified polymorphism of exoskeleton structure of the taiga tick may reflect the natural phenogeographical variability of this trait and might not be the result of human impact.