Fine structure of the gene's organ in the camel tick Hyalomma (Hyalomma) dromedarii (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae)

✍ Scribed by Dr. Samir M. El Shoura

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 852 KB
• Volume: 193
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0362-2525
• DOI: 10.1002/jmor.1051930109

✦ Synopsis

Gene's organ of the camel tick Hyalomma (Hyalornma) dromedarii is located in the anterodorsal region of the body cavity ventrad to the scutum. It consists of a short stalk, dividing posteriorly into 2 pairs of horns and then into tubular glands. In unfed ticks, the eipithelial layer of both the stalk and horns is lined internally by 2 cuticular layers; an inner, thin, greatly folded, dense layer surrounds the organ main lumen, and an outer, thick, slightly folded, less dense layer abuts the cell apices. Only the inner cuticular layer extends into the horn posterior region and appears perforated with numerous pore canals and covered with fine, cuticular projections. The horn and tubular glands epithelium is structurally consistent with a secretory function that apparently increases as feeding progresses. During oviposition, the inner cuticular layer unfolds and inflates into a pair of balloonlike structures that evert through the organ external aperture to receive and manipu-