Data from: A laboratory study estimating blacklegged tick adhesion rates to host species of varying permissiveness

Host species vary tremendously in their permissiveness to blacklegged tick
(Ixodes scapularis) feeding and their capacity to transmit pathogens to
them. Thus, the host species ticks feed on impacts both tick population
growth and infection prevalence. Given the importance of the bloodmeal to
tick fitness there may be selection pressure for behavioral mechanisms
that ensure they feed on more permissive hosts. We hypothesized that, if
ticks have evolved host preferences, adhesion rates (when ticks get onto
hosts) will increase with host permissiveness. We conducted a laboratory
experiment to estimate larval and nymphal adhesion rates on four host
species, representing a range of permissiveness (in descending order:
Peromyscus leucopus, Tamias striatus, Sciurus carolinensis, and Didelphis
virginiana) during standardized encounters using an apparatus designed to
generate repeatable host-tick contacts. We found adhesion rates were
essentially equivalent on the most (P. leucopus) and least permissive
species (D. virginiana) and much higher on the second least permissive
species (S. carolinensis). We also found the maximum adhesion probability
for both larvae and nymphs declined with estimated time since emergence,
though the effect was more pronounced in larvae. These results contradict
both our expectation that adhesion to hosts is biased towards more
permissive hosts and the widely held assumption that ticks equally attempt
feeding on all host species. However, adhesion represents just one stage
of ticks’ host selection process, and whether these adhesion rates in our
study translate into actual feeding rates, and thus impact tick population
and infection dynamics, remains an open question.