AN ANT-DIVERSIONARY SECRETION OF TICKS - 1ST DEMONSTRATION OF AN ACARINE ALLOMONE

To determine whether the secretion of the large wax glands of ticks de ters predators, we examined the responses of predatory ants to diverse ticks, to their secretions and to analogs of these secretions. Large wax glands ornament the surface of metastriate, but not Ixodes ticks, and secrete copiously when the tick is disturbed. Ticks that secrete t his material are not attacked by ants; they become vulnerable after th e secretion has been exhausted or if they are immobilized. Although su ch metastriate ticks are consumed by certain beetles, ants tend to con sume the beetle before it can consume a nearby tick. Secretion harvest ed from pressure-stimulated metastriate ticks as well as squalene, its principal component, protect against ants. Their ant-diversionary pro perties protect metastriate ticks from predation where ants are abunda nt. Prostriate Ixodes ticks, however, are vulnerable to predation by a nts because they lack the allomonal defensive secretion produced by th e large wax glands of metastriate ticks.