[Uneven degree of aging of intestinal epithelium of hungry ticks Ixodes persulcatus].

Adult individuals of I. persulcatus are characterized by uneven assimilation of nutrients in digestive cells of the mid-gut. In the mid-gut of females and males exist simultaneously parts with different degrees of exhaustion. Physiological age of a hungry individual is determined by three items: "main" physiological age; degrees of exhaustion "accompanying" it; and, in addition, by different degrees of exhaustion of individual digestive cells in the limits of one portion of the mid-gut. Calculation of the area of the portions of the "main" and "accompanying" degrees of exhaustion has shown that the former is always maximum one. This suggests the availability of different food resources in hungry ticks of different physiological ages.