Amblyomma cajennense
Fabricius, 1787 · speciesAt a glance
Sources10 archives
Databases and archives Amblyomma cajennense's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation4 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility460 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI40 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics33 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Amblyomma cajennense or Cayenne tick is a species of tick found in a range from the southern part of the United States to northern Argentina, through Central America and some of the Caribbean. As a consequence the species has adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. There are also major geographic barriers such as large rivers and the Andes mountain range. There has been debate over whether A. cajennense is a single species or whether it is a complex of species. In the 1930s, Maria Tonelli-Rondelli proposed that the morphological variation within the species indicated that it was a complex, while in the 1950s this variation was proposed to be due to normal variation between individuals of one species. Molecular biological analyses have indicated that A. cajennense is a complex of species. A 2014 studySantiago Nava, Lorenza Beati, Marcelo B. Labruna, Abraham G. Cáceres, Atilio J. Mangolda and Alberto A. Guglielmone. 2014. Reassessment of the taxonomic status of Amblyomma cajennense (Fabricius, 1787) with the description of three new species, Amblyomma tonelliae n. sp., Amblyomma interandinum n. sp. and Amblyomma patinoi n. sp., and reinstatement of Amblyomma mixtum Koch, 1844, and Amblyomma sculptum Berlese, 1888 (Ixodida: Ixodidae). Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, Volume 5, Issue 3, April 2014, pp. 252-276; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2013.11.004, as accessed 22 Sep 2020. asserts that Amblyomma cajennense s.s. is found only in the Amazonian region of South America, whereas the species reported from the northern part of the Inter-Andean valley of Peru is A. interandinum, the species present from Texas (U.S.A.) to western Ecuador is A. mixtum, the species that occurs in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia is A. patinoi, the species associated with the dry areas of the Chaco region spanning from central-northern Argentina to Bolivia and Paraguay is A. tonelliae, and the species distributed from the humid areas of northern Argentina to the contiguous regions of Bolivia and Paraguay and the coastal and central-western states of Brazil is A. sculptum.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
No structured trait data for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Amblyomma cajennense has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Amblyomma cajennense carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 223×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database · GoaT · Animal Genome Size Database · TreeOfSex · invert
Record type460 records
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions7 of 13 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Harold Winfred Manter Laboratory of Parasitologylocation not on record | 102 |
| Ciudad de México, MX | 70 |
| Champaign, US | 17 |
| Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 12 |
| UFMG-CCTlocation not on record | 10 |
| New Haven, US | 9 |
| Ohio State University Acarology Laboratory, Columbus, OH (OSAL)location not on record | 7 |
| Essig Museum of Entomologylocation not on record | 3 |
| Cambridge, US | 2 |
| Provo, US | 2 |
| Mexico City, MX | 2 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 1 |
| Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA)location not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Amblyomma cajennense was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.