Identity of Ixodes ugandanus Neumann, 1906 (Acari: Ixodidae), reinstatement of I. ampullaceus Warburton, 1933 as a valid species and redescription of I. aulacodi Arthur, 1956, parasites of rodents and other animals in sub-Saharan Africa.

The identity of Ixodes (Afrixodes) ugandanus Neumann, 1906 (Acari: Ixodidae) is established and its male and female are redescribed based on specimens collected on rodents (Rodentia: Muridae, Thryonomyidae) in Ethiopia and Uganda. Lectotype of I. ugandanus is designated here.

An official South African species checklist from the National Tick Collection of South Africa (Gertrud Theiler Tick Museum).

Ticks play a crucial role in ecosystem dynamics and disease transmission, necessitating accurate species identification for epidemiological and ecological research. South Africa, despite occupying only 0.82 % of the world's land area, harbors approximately 11 % of global tick species richness.

Are there 16 species of brown dog ticks? Phylogenies from 60 entire mitochondrial genomes and 162 cox1 sequences reveal 16 species-level clades in the Rhipicephalus (Rhipicephalus) sanguineus group☆☆.

The Rhipicephalus sanguineus group, the brown dog ticks, are cosmopolitan and doubtless the most important ticks of domestic dogs, clinically and economically. Despite four decades of taxonomic enquiry with nucleotide sequences and morphology, the taxonomy of the R. sanguineus group is confused, even chaotic.

Discovery of a novel Mediterranean () group tick species infesting on Antikythira Island, Greece.

Eleonora's falcon ( Géné, 1839) is a well-known long-distance migrant of the Afro-Palaearctic flyway, a summer breeder of the Mediterranean region and North-west Africa and a winter resident of Madagascar and surrounding areas, thus characterized as a double endemic. Within the context of a long-term monitoring and conservation programme on Antikythira Island, Greece, which accommodates one of the largest concentrations of breeding pairs of Eleonora's falcons globally, birds were subjected to regular inspections for the presence of ticks from 2017 to 2023. In total, 104 adults and 149 nymphs (all belonging to genus) were collected.

Description of a new () (Ixodida: Argasidae) tick species from Pakistan.

The genus is notably diverse within the family Argasidae, comprising approximately 134 species distributed among 4 subgenera, 1 of which is the subgenus . In an earlier study, we identified distinct soft ticks as () sp., which were collected from animal shelters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Description of a new tick species, closely related to Amblyomma javanense (Supino, 1897), associated with Varanus bengalensis (Squamata: Varanidae) in Pakistan.

The genus Amblyomma contains the highest percentage of reptile-associated ticks, and comprises approximately nine subgenera. One of these subgenera is Adenopleura, which also encompasses Amblyomma javanense, and its type species Amblyomma compressum. This study describes a new Amblyomma species associated with Bengal monitor lizards (Varanus bengalensis) based on morphology and its mitogenome in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Ticks and tick-borne diseases from Mallorca Island, Spain.

Ixodid ticks are obligate blood-feeding arthropods and important vectors of pathogens. In Mallorca, almost no data on the tick fauna are available. Herein, we investigated ticks and tick-borne pathogens in ticks collected from dogs, a cat and humans in Mallorca as result of a citizen science project.

Nuttalliellidae in Burmese amber: implications for tick evolution.

Ticks are composed of 3 extant families (Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae) and 2 extinct families (Deinocrotonidae and Khimairidae). The Nuttalliellidae possess one extant species () limited to the Afrotropic region. A basal relationship to the hard and soft tick families and its limited distribution suggested an origin for ticks in the Afrotropics.

New insights into the molecular phylogeny, biogeographical history, and diversification of Amblyomma ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) based on mitogenomes and nuclear sequences.

Background: Amblyomma is the third most diversified genus of Ixodidae that is distributed across the Indomalayan, Afrotropical, Australasian (IAA), Nearctic and Neotropical biogeographic ecoregions, reaching in the Neotropic its highest diversity. There have been hints in previously published phylogenetic trees from mitochondrial genome, nuclear rRNA, from combinations of both and morphology that the Australasian Amblyomma or the Australasian Amblyomma plus the Amblyomma species from the southern cone of South America, might be sister-group to the Amblyomma of the rest of the world. However, a stable phylogenetic framework of Amblyomma for a better understanding of the biogeographic patterns underpinning its diversification is lacking.

The first cryptic genus of Ixodida, Cryptocroton n. gen. for Amblyomma papuanum Hirst, 1914: a tick of North Queensland, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

We describe a new genus Cryptocroton n. gen. for Amblyomma papuanum Hirst, 1914, a tick of North Queensland, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

Insights from entire mitochondrial genome sequences into the phylogeny of ticks of the genera Haemaphysalis and Archaeocroton with the elevation of the subgenus Alloceraea Schulze, 1919 back to the status of a genus.

We used entire mitochondrial (mt) genome sequences (14.5-15 kbp) to resolve the phylogeny of the four main lineages of the Haematobothrion ticks: Alloceraea, Archaeocroton, Bothriocroton and Haemaphysalis. In our phylogenetic trees, Alloceraea was the sister to Archaeocroton sphenodonti, a tick of an archetypal reptile, the tuatara, from New Zealand, to the exclusion of the rest of the species of Haemaphysalis.

A new subgenus, Australixodes n. subgen. (Acari: Ixodidae), for the kiwi tick, Ixodes anatis Chilton, 1904, and validation of the subgenus Coxixodes Schulze, 1941 with a phylogeny of 16 of the 22 subgenera of Ixodes Latreille, 1795 from entire mitochondrial genome sequences.

A new subgenus, Australixodes n. subgen., is described for the kiwi tick, Ixodes anatis Chilton, 1904.

Molecular and serological prevalence of corridor disease (buffalo associated Theileria parva infection) in cattle populations at the livestock/game interface of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.

Theileria parva are intracellular protozoal parasites responsible for three disease syndromes in cattle, namely East Coast fever (ECF), Corridor disease (CD) and Zimbabwean theileriosis. The increase in reports of CD outbreaks in recent years has raised questions about the probability of adaptation of buffalo-derived T. parva strains in cattle herds adjacent to game reserves.

Paradigms in tick evolution.

The study of tick evolution may be classified into disciplines such as taxonomy and systematics, biogeography, evolution and development (evo-devo), ecology, and hematophagy. These disciplines overlap and impact each other to various extents. Advances in one field may lead to paradigm shifts in our understanding of tick evolution not apparent to other fields.

A Deeper Insight into the Tick Salivary Protein Families under the Light of Alphafold2 and Dali: Introducing the TickSialoFam 2.0 Database.

Hard ticks feed for several days or weeks on their hosts and their saliva contains thousands of polypeptides belonging to dozens of families, as identified by salivary transcriptomes. Comparison of the coding sequences to protein databases helps to identify putative secreted proteins and their potential functions, directing and focusing future studies, usually done with recombinant proteins that are tested in different bioassays. However, many families of putative secreted peptides have a unique character, not providing significant matches to known sequences.

Amplification and sequencing of entire tick mitochondrial genomes for a phylogenomic analysis.

The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) has proven to be important for the taxonomy, systematics, and population genetics of ticks. However, current methods to generate mitogenomes can be cost-prohibitive at scale. To address this issue, we developed a cost-effective approach to amplify and sequence the whole mitogenome of individual tick specimens.

Hard ticks in Burmese amber with Australasian affinities.

Three examples of metastriate hard ticks (Ixodida: Ixodidae) with apparent affinities to modern Australasian genera are described from the mid-Cretaceous (ca. 100 Ma) Burmese amber of Myanmar. Two nymphs of sp.

Haemaphysalis hoodi (Acari: Ixodidae) on a human from Yaoundé, Cameroon, and its molecular characterization.

The genus Haemaphysalis Koch, 1844 (Acari: Ixodidae) is the second-largest genus, with more than 170 described species that primarily parasitize mammals and birds (Guglielmone et al. 2014, Guglielmone et al. 2020).

Their young bite better: On- and off-host selection pressure as drivers for evolutionary-developmental modification in Rhipicephalus ticks.

Distinct life stages may experience different selection pressures influencing phenotypic evolution. Morphological evolution is also constrained by early phenotypes, since early development forms the phenotypic basis of later development. This work investigates evolutionary-developmental modification in three life stages and both sexes of 24 Rhipicephalus species using phylogenetic comparative methods for geometric morphometrics of basis capituli (basal mouthpart structure used for host attachment), and scutum or conscutum areas (proxy for overall body size).

An exotic souvenir on a German traveler returning from South Africa.

The study reports the finding of a nymph attached to a German tourist during a holiday in South Africa. The nymph specimen was morphologically identified and confirmed by sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA and 12S rRNA genes. The nymph was identified as Rhipicephalus maculatus, a rare tick reported in humans.