Sacroptes scabiei. Biological & Biomedical Sciences. Research Paper

Assignment
Name
Institution
Sacroptes Scabiei
Introduction
Sarcoptes scabiei is a mite that causes skin disease scabiei in human beings and mange in other animals. The parasitic mite barrows the skin causing burning sensations that consequently result in itching by the host and equally giving an avenue for bacterial attacks. The mite produces and deposits several layers of proteins through feces that they deposit on the burrows hence blocking itself from the attack of the host’s immune system. This explains the change in the skin of the hosts of those affected by the disease. Scabiei is now classified among dangerous skin infections that bring along other diseases like rheumatic fever meaning that the scabiei mite may be pathogenic bacteria carriers.
Morphology, behavior and life cycle
Morphology
Sarcoptes scabiei has an oval body like that of a tortoise that is vertically flat and a convex dorsal. The dorsal close up is lateral, the spines are cuticle as well as the striations. Both the male and the females have four pairs of short legs with all terminal segments having legs with claws. Both males and females have legs III and IV that do not go beyond the lateral posterior margins of the idiosoma while legs I and II extend past the anterior margin. Legs III of the male and legs III and Legs IV of the females reach the end at the long setae. Their mouths parts are short and rounded. The female’s anal openings are dorsal and have papilla of the bursa copulatrix which looks like nipples that are situated anterior of the anal canal. Females are bigger than males in both physical sizes as well as weight. They generally have small, round bodies that look whitish with small and rounded mouthparts (Arlian & Morgan 2017).
Life cycle
The life cycle of a Sarcoptes scabiei is the same as that of the rest of astigmatic mites. The stages of development of Sarcoptes scabiei consists of four stages namely the egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph, and adult. The Sarcoptes scabiei from human beings have life cycles which have a duration of between 12 to 17 days on the stage of eggs, 17 to 21 days on the larva stage, 7 to 10 days on the protonymph stage, 9to15 days on the tritonymph stage, and finally around 15 days as an adult. Females live for between 26 to 40 days and they lay and eggs over 40 to 50 (Arlian & Morgan 2017).
Behavior
Host seeking
Sarcoptes scabiei seek a host when they are in close proximity but off the host. This means that in an environment that is contaminated with Sarcoptes scabiei they must find a host even after falling off another one. This means that for contamination to happen then direct contact with an infected person or animal is not a must. In the case of human beings, the mite can temporarily find habitat on seats, beddings, clothing as well as other environments hence acting as sources of infections. In the case of other animals, the mite Sarcoptes scabiei can be found in shared environments like sheds, stalls among others (Arlian & Morgan 2017).
An experiment conducted showed that Sarcoptes scabiei quickly responded to the stimulus that was close to them compared to those that were further away. What stimulated the response must have been the odor of the b...