Table 1.
Climate and altitude variables for the four species distribution models of O. turicata constructed using Maxent.
Fig 1.
Ornithodoros turicata localities generated from USNTC and SCAN reports, literature reviews, and field studies.
Localities in which a collection date was not recorded are represented by black circles. Blue, yellow, and red circles represent localities that were collected from 1800–1950, 1950–2000, and 2000-present, respectively.
Table 2.
Collection summary of O. turicata in Texas and Florida.
Fig 2.
Model predictions for the distribution of O. turicata based on current climate conditions: A) precipitation model, B) temperature model, C) full model, and D) top-five environmental variables model.
Probability of O. turicata classified into 5 categories: very high probability (red), high probability (orange), moderate probability (yellow), low probability (green), and very low probability (white).
Table 3.
Summary of environmental variables, of the average percent contribution (PC) and permutation importance (PI) for each of the four species distribution models of O. turicata.
Fig 3.
Known (asterisk) and suspected (no mark) hosts of O. turicata ranked by the percentage of their distribution overlap with the estimated range (full model, > 20% probability range = 1,752,272 km2) of O. turicata.
Blue bars correspond to mammalian hosts, yellow bars to reptilian hosts, and the red bars to the single suspected avian host (burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia) whose range varies depending on their nesting phenology. Only hosts that had 5% or more overlap are included in this figure. Abbreviation code as in S3 Table where the complete list of hosts is included.
Fig 4.
Environmental variables that may explain the gap between populations of O. turicata in Florida and Texas.
Shown are mean temperature of the wettest quarter (BIO8) (A), mean temperature of driest quarter (BIO9) (B), and precipitation of the driest quarter (BIO17) (C). The gradient of red to blue represents high to low temperatures (°C) (A–B). For the precipitation variable, a gradient of green to dark brown represents the amount of high to low precipitation (mm) (C).
Fig 5.
Three response curves with only corresponding variables in the O. turicata model: A) mean temperature of the wettest quarter (BIO8), B) mean temperature of the driest quarter (BIO9), and C) precipitation of the driest quarter (BIO17).
Mean response of 10 Maxent runs (red) and the mean ± 1 standard deviation (yellow).