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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Extraction of Saliva, Haemolymph, Salivary Glands, and Midgut from Individual Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae)
Published on: October 31, 2025
Finding of an ixodid tick inside a late Holocene owl pellet from northwestern Argentina
J P Sanchez1, S Nava, M Lareschi
1Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores, CEPAVE (CCT La Plata-CONICET-UNLP), Calle 2 # 584, 1900 La Plata, Argentina. julianasanchez78@hotmail.com
Abstract:
In the present study, we report the earliest record of Ixodes sigelos from the late Holocene in Argentina. The tick was recovered from an owl pellet collected within a small mammal sequence in Las Máscaras Cave, Catamarca, Argentina (27 degrees 01'12S'', 66 degrees 44'37''W) and dated at 990 + or - 35 cal yr. Based on bones also present in the pellet, the tick most-likely parasitized a rodent, identified as an Eligmodontia sp., which had been ingested by the owl.

