Module 2: Parasitic Arthropods

General characteristic

Segmentation (metamerism)

- Repeated body segment

- Repeated expression of genes during
the production of other segments

Phylum Arthropoda - Tagmatization- group in functional

regions
- Many in number compared to other o Cephalothorax – head and
animals (now: few geologic; history: thorax fused
many)
- 85% of all animal species
- Greek: jointed foot
- Diverse, extant and extinct
- General form and function
o Segmentation
o Body wall
o Molting

Body wall

- Musculature
- Epidermis Molting/Ecdysis
- Cuticle
- Exoskeleton and gut lining
- New cuticle is secreted before old one
- Cuticle
is shed
o hard, indigestible and insoluble
- Old cuticle is split by uptake of water or
o several layers containing
air or increased blood pressure
protein, lipids and
- Both under neural and hormonal
polysaccharides
control
o divided into:
- Factors that affect molting
- Epicuticle – made up of proteins,
o Dependent on species/age
lipoproteins, wax and lipid
o An adaptation
o Makes it insoluble
o Depended on stage of
- Endocuticle – composed largely by
development
polysaccharide chitin in association with
o If there is an existing diapause
a number of proteins
o Rigidity
o Place for muscle attachment
- Epidermis
o Also known as hypodermis
o Secretes cuticle by
sclerotization/tanning and
mineralization
▪ sclerotization – cross Siphonaptera: Fleas
linkage between - Size range
proteins – forms layers o 1 to 3 mm
▪ Mineralization - - Hosts
deposition of minerals o Mammals and birds
(calcium carbonate) - Diversity
- Musculature o 2500 species
o Attached to inner skeletal ridge o Taxonomy unsettled
or apophysis - Vector
o Cause of plague
o Pandemic
General morphology ▪ Propulsive force
- Mouthparts
- Sclerotized
o Adapted for piercing
- Bilaterally flattened
o Segmented palps
- Wingless
▪ Pair of segmented
- Presence of genal and pronotal
appendages near the
ctenidium
mouth part
o Sensory organ at posterior end
o Laciniae
o If lacking, has setae –
▪ piercing fascicles which
adaptation that retain itself in
comprises 2 elongated
skin of host
axillary lobes
- Pygidium
▪ Epipharynx – sucking
structure

- Development
o Holometabolus – all stages are
present
o Eggs on nest
▪ Hatches 1-4 weeks
depending on
environmental
condition (warm,
humid)
- Legs o Not host specific
o Strong o Phototactic
o Hind legs commonly larger o Survive without food
▪ Resilin ▪ 100 to 500 days
• Has protein ▪ Low temperature
• Provides
elasticity
• More rubber
(97%)than
commercial
rubber
 o Can live up to 3 years - Mainly transferred by X. cheopis
- Clinical forms
o Bubonic – swollen lymph nodes
(bacteria-filled)
o Pneumonic – infecting the lungs
o Septicemic – affecting the
blood
- gram negative, coccobacillus

Murine Typhus

- endemic flea-borne typhus

- Some representative species - Rickettsia mooseri
o Pulex irritans - Transported by: X. cheopsis
▪ Human flea - Endemic in: US, Mexico, EU, Africa, SE
o Nosopsyllus fasciatus Asia, Australia
▪ Northern rat flea
▪ Rat and mice Myxomatosis
▪ Not important plague - Caused by (myxoma) virus
vector - Mainly affecting rabbits
o Leptopsylla segnis - Swelling of the mucous membranes and
▪ European mouse flea inflammation and discharge around the
▪ Common on Rattus eyes
o Ctenocephalides sp.
▪ Cats and dogs
▪ Transmit filarial worms
▪ IH of D. caninum
o Xenopylla cheopis
▪ Oriental-tropical rat flea
▪ Vector of Hymenolepis
diminuta

Plague

- Yersinia pestis
- 25 M lives Phthiraptera: Lice
- Disease of rodents - Long been companion to humans
 - Widely prevalent esp. to very poor - No free living stage
societies
- Contributed to recent emergence of
diseases (typhus)
- Order Mallophaga and Anoplura

MALOPHAGA: chewing lice

- Diversity
o 4400 species (in bird and
General Morphology mammal)
- Medicine
- Wingless o No directly medical importance
- Dorsoventrally flatted o Some are vectors of pilarial
- No eyes nematodes
- Enlarge tarsal claws (for hair) - Diet
o Oil on hair
o Mucus
o Blood if available

ANOPLURA: sucking lice

- Diversity
o Fewer than 500 species (only
mammals)
- Morphology
o Resemble chewing lice
o Structure is more specialized
o Heads are narrower than thorax
o Retractable mouth parts
o Has piercing and sucking
apparatus (buccal teeth within
Development and Life style a labrum-- nababaliktad)
- Hemimetabolous – incomplete
transformation
- Parasitic
 - Spend most of their time in their host’s
clothing
- Egg cemented in clothing
- Temperature sensitive (temperate –
colder)
- Depart when host is dead
- Pediculosis
o Pruritus
o Dermatitis
o Secondary infection
- Vegabond’s disease –thicken skin
- Plica polonica –has fungus growth
- Diet/feeding
o Solenophage: introduce
mouthparts directly to a blood
vessel to withdraw blood
o Telmophage: feeding from a
small pool of blood produced by
cutting the skin

Phthirus pubis

- Crab louse
- 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm long
- Medicine
- Grasping tarsi reminiscent of crabs’
o Medically important due to its
pincers
impact in humans

Pediculus humanus

- capitis- head
- corpis/humanus/vestimenti -body
- only vectors of Typhus in temperate
regions
 - Trench fever
o Bartonella quintana
o Contamination of skin with
feces/crushed louse or by
inhalation
o Headache, body pain, and
malaise headache, pain in the
back and legs (especially in the
shins), dizziness, and postorbital
Lice as vectors pain in movement of the eyes
Gram negative bacterias:

- Louse-borne Typhus
o Rickettsia prowazekii
o Infected lie excretes rickettsia
onto the skin
o High fever, backache, intense
headache, and often bronchitis
and brocnchopneumonia
o 1489 – many are killed in
armies
- Relapsing fever
o Spirochete, Borrelia recurrentis
o Transmission: louse crushed by
host scratching → releases the
spirochetes
o Transitory rash (neck,
shoulders, chest, abdomen).
o Patient is severely ill for 4-5
days, when the temperature
suddenly falls, accompanied by
profuse sweating
 o Male – mas makapal

DIPTERA: Flies

- 2 words: true fly (Ex: house fly, tsetse

fly)
- Overview
o Most medically important
▪ Vectors
▪ Active micropredators
o Taxonomic characters
commonly used: (to
differentiate)
- Moth flies (Psychodidae)
o Drain flies
o Psychoda alternata
o Found in sewage disposal plants
o May transmit nematodes
- Sand flies (Psychodidae)
o Females parasitic (may feed on
- General Morphology nectar)
o Wings o Feeds on many vertebrate
▪ Well-developed groups
▪ Reduced (Haltere— o Phlebotomus
balance organ) ▪ Cause sand fly fever
o Proboscis (viral)
o Ocelli o Lutzomiya
▪ Transmit Leishmania
spp., bartonellosis and
other viral diseases
 - Anopheles
o Breeding sites
▪ Swamps, pools,
streams, tree holes
- Mosquitoes (Culicidae)
o Vector
- General form
- Anopheles gambiae – most common
o Wings
(malaria)
o Proboscis
o Antennae
o Bristles in the body

- Life cycle
o Holometabolous
o Eggs on water or soil - Aedes
o Larva (Water) o Yellow fever mosquito
o Pupa (water) o Breed on small containers and
o Adult leaf axils
o Vector for CE virus
o Killed European armies
o Vector for the flavivirus that
causes Dengue Fever
o Zika virus
Females

- Auxiliary pulps is as long as proboscis in - Encephalitis causes sleeping sickness –

Anopheline comma like
o Culicine smaller - Tse tse fly (Glossinidae)
o plimose o Daytime feeders of blood (both
sexes)
Males o Have chemoreceptors that are
attracted to sweat
- Auxiliary pulps are bushy
o Vectors for Trypanosoma spp
- Plumose
▪ African sleeping
Diptera: Flies sickness

- Culex
- Vector of viruses and other parasites
- Encephalitis, West Nile Fever
- House or common mosquito
 HEMIPTERA: Bugs o Solenophagus – directly on
blood vessel
- Overview
o 100 species out of 55000
o Hemimetabolous

- Bed bugs (Cimidae)

o Cimex
▪ lectularius
▪ hemipterus
o Leptocimex
o Pests of humans and domestic
animals, as well as bats, birds,
- General form and various other mammals
o Color: redish brown to o Iron and hemoglobin deficiency
mahogany, shiny
o Dorsoventrally flattened
o Oval shaped

- Life cycle
o Hemimetabolous
o Can molt - Reduviid bugs (Reduviidae)
o Dependent on symbiotic o Predators of other insects
bacteria ▪ Triatoma
• Kissing big
• Vector of
Trypanosoma
cruzi