Ixodes (Ixodes)

Western black-legged tick Ixodes pacificus, copyright Kaldari.

Belongs within: Ixodidae.

Ixodes subgenus Ixodes is the group of ticks including the primary vectors of Lyme disease, caused by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi. These include the Palaearctic species I. ricinus and I. persulcatus, and the Nearctic spescies I. pacificus and I. dammini (Filippova 1991). Members of this subgenus are distinguished by the absence of spurs on the first segment of the palp (Kleinjan & Lane 2008). Ixodes ricinus, commonly referred to as the castor bean tick, is a relatively large species found in the western Palaearctic, with females reaching up to 11 mm when engorged.

Characters (from Kleinjan & Lane 2008): Palpal article I lacking anterior or posterior spurs; auriculae present; small external spur present on coxae I and II; alloscutal setae conspicuously long (often 0.08–0.10 mm), with typically seven marginal dorsal setae, two or more central dorsal setae, and one pair of dorsal supplementary setae; normally 3 setae on coxae III; anal groove usually evident; three posterior marginal festoons faint.

<==Ixodes Latreille 1795 (Ixodes)
    |--*I. (I.) ricinus (Linnaeus 1758) B94 [=Acarus ricinus B94, Cynorhaestes ricinus CF77]
    |--I. (I.) affinis Neumann 1899 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) brunneus Koch 1844 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) dammini Spilman, Clifford et al. 1979 F91
    |--I. (I.) dentatus Marx 1899 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) frontalis (Panzer 1798) HRK91
    |--I. (I.) hyatti Clifford, Hoogstraal & Kohls 1971 F91
    |--I. (I.) jellisoni Cooley & Kohls 1938 F91
    |--I. (I.) kashmiricus Pomerantzev 1946 F91
    |--I. (I.) kazakstani Olenev & Sorokoumov 1934 F91
    |--I. (I.) kuntzi Hoogstraal & Kohls 1965 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) montoyanus Cooley 1944 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) muris Bishopp & Smith 1937 F91
    |--I. (I.) neotomae Cooley 1944 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) nipponensis Kitaoka & Saito 1967 F91
    |--I. (I.) nuttallianus Schulzew 1930 F91
    |--I. (I.) pacificus Cooley & Kohls 1943 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) pavlovskyi Pomerantzev 1946 F91
    |--I. (I.) persulcatus Schulze 1930 HRK91
    |--I. (I.) pomerantzi Kohls 1957 HRK91
    `--I. (I.) scapularis Say 1821 F91

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B94] Bock, W. J. 1994. History and nomenclature of avian family-group names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 222: 1–281.

[CF77] Canestrini, G., & F. Fanzago. 1877. Intorno agli Acari Italiani. Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Serie 5, 4: 69–208, pls 2–7.

[F91] Filippova, N. A. 1991. A hypothesis for the palaeogenesis of the distribution of the main vectors for Lyme disease. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 1 pp. 109–118. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.

[HRK91] Homsher, P. J., R. G. Robbins & J. E. Keirans. 1991. Scanning electron microscopy of Haller’s organ for subgeneric systematic studies in the genus Ixodes. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 2 pp. 335–342. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.

Kleinjan, J. E., & R. S. Lane. 2008. Larval keys to the genera of Ixodidae (Acari) and species of Ixodes (Latreille) ticks established in California. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 84 (2): 121-142.

Last updated: 3 July 2017.