Multivariate models for ticks collected under different environmental, spatial, and temporal conditions.

Specimens collected under different conditions were analyzed pairwise by calculation of statistical models. In the left panel, the column ‘sample pairs’ indicates the two groups which were analyzed in every row. Numbers refer to the sample IDs given in Table 1. Environmental parameters are given in the columns ‘season’, ‘region’ and ‘habitat’ for both groups as black boxes. In the central panel (‘group differences’), differing and concordant environmental parameters are highlighted in red and green color, respectively, and the distance between the two collection sites is given in km in the ‘distance’ column. The following abbreviations were used: Fa = fall, Sp = spring, Su = summer, Fo = forest, Md = meadow, N = nymphs, A = adult. In the right panel, the rates of correct cross validation with ClinProTools software is given in % for every pair and for the following algorithms: genetic algorithm (GA), support vector machine (SVM), supervised neural network (SNN), and the quick classifier (QC). Details of the statistical models are given as Supporting information in files S1 Table and S2 Table.