Deep Mitochondrial DNA Lineage Divergences Within Alberta Populations of Dermacentor albipictus (Acari: Ixodidae) Do Not Indicate Distinct Species

The winter tick Dermacentor albipictus (Packard) has a single-host life cycle that allows it to reach severe infestation levels on ungulates, particularly moose, Genotypic variation within these and related ticks has been a source of taxonomic confusion, although the continuity in their morphology and life history has generally been interpreted as indicating the existence of a single species, To further investigate this variation, we sequenced regions of two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genes (COI and 16S rDNA), two nuclear genes (lysozyme and ITS-2), and two bacterial markers from Francisella-like endosymbionts found in these ticks (eubacterial mtDNA 16S rRNA and a homolog of Francisella tularensis [Dorofe'ev] 17-kDa lipoprotein). We sampled 42 D. albipictus individuals from whitetail and mule deer culled from three populations in east-central Alberta, as well as four D. albipictus and two Dermacentor variabilis (Say) from other locations, We then compared DNA sequence variation between the genes a...