A. Estradapena et al., USING CUTICULAR HYDROCARBON COMPOSITION TO ELUCIDATE PHYLOGENIES IN TICK POPULATIONS (ACARI, IXODIDAE), Acta Tropica, 58(1), 1994, pp. 51-71
Cuticular hydrocarbon composition is used to explain hypothetical phyl
ogenies among sympatric and allopatric populations of Amblyomma cajenn
ense, A. variegatum and Ixodes ricinus tick species. The method propos
ed here uses a parsimony analysis of endemicity by disjunct biochemica
l data (PAEDB) based in the pattern of cuticular hydrocarbons. The adv
antage of our approach is that information contained in fragments that
are not conserved in all the individuals of a population need not be
discarded, and that only patterns of presence/absence are used. In suc
h a way, PAEDB methodology provides a system which traces the pathway
of a definite compound through populations, together with data of gene
tic relationships among specimens.