Dehydration tolerance of the Rocky Mountain wood tick,<i>Dermacentor andersoni</i>stiles (Acari: Ixodidae), matches preference for a dry environment
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Peak activity of the medically significant Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni Stiles (Acari: Ixodidae), during hot summer months in the Rocky Mountains and southwestern Canada was evaluated by determining water balance characteristics for each of its developmental stages. This tick is dry-adapted and has a water balance classification as xerophilic based upon interspecific comparison with other ticks and a low net transpiration (water loss) rate as the distinguishing feature. All stages (eggs excepted) rely on water vapor as the primary source of water, as evidenced by critical equilibrium humidity assessments and an inability to drink free water from droplets. A relatively low dehydration tolerance limit and high net transpiration rate is reported for the larva, indicating that it is the most sensitive stage to water stress in the lifecycle. The xerophilic nature of D. andersoni makes it less dependent upon a moisture-rich environment and identifies overhydration, although unstudied, as the primary factor limiting its distribution to the Rocky Mountain area.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".