Ixodid Ticks Drink Water from the Air

The tick is an insect that resembles the spider, with a maximum length of 1cm, although many ticks measure to even less than 1mm, which is about the same size as a grain of sand. There are many types of ticks: many live in the forest, in other places out in nature, as well as in people’s homes, but they are so small that we cannot see them. The Amblyomma tick, a type of ixodid tick that lives in tropical regions, has a special skill: Amblyomma ticks can take in humidity from the air, which makes it possible for the tick to live for several months without directly drinking any water. When we humans live in such hot places, we need to drink a great deal of water or else we will not survive. The secret lies in a special liquid that comes out of its mouth. First, the tick uses two legs to search for air with a high level of humidity, (air that contains a lot of water). Once it finds such air, the tick releases a special liquid from its mouth that absorbs water. The tick re-swallows this liquid, thereby retrieving water from the air. The liquid produced from the tick’s mouth is made of out of brine that absorbs moisture from the air. When the liquid is produced from the tick’s mouth, it dries into a crystallized substance if there is a low level of humidity in the air. As the humidity level rises, the crystallized substance melts, allowing the tick to re-swallow it. There are other types of ticks that use the same method to find water, and ticks living in dry places can even obtain water from air low humidity levels.

Resouce/Energy/Information Collection & Storage:: Water retention

Resource saving

Gaede K, Knulle W ,　On the mechanism of water vapour sorption from unsaturated atmospheres by ticks, JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, 200(10), 1491-1498,1997

If we developed a type of material that can absorb water the same way ticks do, we would be able to produce a dry material that absorbs more water the more humid it is. This development would allow for buildings and objects to be more resistant to dampness. We can also anticipate developing packages that could store sweets for longer periods of time. When it comes to living spaces, we might be able to live comfortably with the right level of humidity even without using humidifiers.

Query	Affected	Num. rows	Took (ms)	Actions
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents`	16	16	2	maybe slow
SELECT CHARACTER_SET_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS WHERE COLLATION_NAME= 'utf8_general_ci';	1	1	1
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `users`	10	10	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups`	4	4	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `permissions`	5	5	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups_permissions`	3	3	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `groups_users`	3	3	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_searches`	6	6	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `attachments`	11	11	9	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `attachments_revs`	13	13	2	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_related_items`	5	5	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `related_items`	6	6	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_related_items_revs`	8	8	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_tags`	5	5	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `tags`	7	7	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `tag_groups`	6	6	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_tags_revs`	7	7	1	maybe slow
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `contents_revs`	18	18	2	maybe slow
SELECT `Content`.`id`, `Content`.`user_id`, `Content`.`last_edit_user_id`, `Content`.`post_date`, `Content`.`post_date_year`, `Content`.`post_date_month`, `Content`.`post_date_day`, `Content`.`title`, `Content`.`title_en`, `Content`.`content`, `Content`.`plain_content`, `Content`.`page_view`, `Content`.`flag`, `Content`.`mod_count`, `Content`.`created`, `Content`.`modified` FROM `contents` AS `Content` WHERE `id` = 154 LIMIT 1	1	1	8	maybe slow
SELECT `Attachment`.`file_name`, `Attachment`.`dir`, `Attachment`.`model`, `Attachment`.`foreign_key` FROM `attachments` AS `Attachment` WHERE `file_name` <> 'default.jpg' AND `Attachment`.`foreign_key` = (154)	1	1	0
SELECT `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content`, `ContentsRelatedItem`.`related_item_id`, `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content_id` FROM `contents_related_items` AS `ContentsRelatedItem` WHERE `ContentsRelatedItem`.`content_id` = (154)	11	11	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 1	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 2	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 4	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 6	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 8	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 9	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 11	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `RelatedItem`.`id` = 12	1	1	0
SELECT `ContentsTag`.`id`, `ContentsTag`.`tag_group_id`, `ContentsTag`.`mod_count`, `ContentsTag`.`tag_id`, `ContentsTag`.`content_id` FROM `contents_tags` AS `ContentsTag` WHERE `ContentsTag`.`content_id` = (154)	2	2	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Tag`.`name`, `Tag`.`comment`, `Tag`.`tag_group_id` FROM `tags` AS `Tag` WHERE `Tag`.`id` = 98	1	1	0
SELECT `TagGroup`.`code`, `TagGroup`.`name` FROM `tag_groups` AS `TagGroup` WHERE `TagGroup`.`id` = 7	1	1	0
SELECT `RelatedItem`.`id`, `RelatedItem`.`code`, `RelatedItem`.`name`, `RelatedItem`.`created`, `RelatedItem`.`modified`, `RelatedItem`.`flag` FROM `related_items` AS `RelatedItem` WHERE `code` = 'function' LIMIT 1	1	1	0
SELECT `Content`.`id`, `Content`.`title`, `Content`.`title_en` FROM `contents` AS `Content` WHERE id = (NULL) ORDER BY `id` desc	0	0	0

Message	Memory use
Component intitailization	6.79 MB
Controller action start	6.83 MB
Controller render start	6.90 MB
View render complete	7.93 MB

Message	Time in ms	Graph
Core Processing (Derived)	334.16
Component initialization and startup	15.31
Controller action	38.28
Render Controller Action	67.43
» Rendering View	55.60
» » Rendering APP/views/contents/view.ctp	32.71
» » Rendering APP/views/layouts/default.ctp	21.12
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/header.ctp	1.63
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/content_sidebar.ctp	0.37
» » » Rendering APP/views/elements/footer.ctp	0.41

Ixodid Ticks Drink Water from the Air

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