At the same time, some presently favourable areas in the north would become less suitable for the fly. The cattle tick is an introduced pest in northern Australia. This tick has also been introduced into southern Africa, where it has had sufficient time to reach a stable distribution. A local tick, Boophilus decoloratus , occurred in those areas. This example has raised questions concerning the geographical distribution of many other species of ticks around the world.
Users select the required functions and options from a series of graphic menus.
Indices are derived that describe the relative favourableness of different locations for a species. Longterm average meteorological data from monthly temperatures, rainfall and relative humidity is used. Output is produced in the form of tables of indices, graphs of seasonal changes in the temperature and growth indices, and maps of the areas of interest. The tables of results can be produced in several levels of detail, with the least detailed giving only annual indices, while the most detailed tables produce listings of all the weekly indices. One format of these results has been designed to be used as input to the cattle tick expert system, ExperTik.