4. Genital apron a wide triangle composed of a protruding anterior ridge and a deeply, abruptly depressed, narrower posterior button... Genital apron a wide shield with a 5. Circumspiracular area hirsute. Middle segments of two pairs of hind legs lacking dorsal enamel ling.. Circumspiracular area glabrous, or with few hairs. Middle segments of two pairs of hind legs enamelled dorsally.. 6. Genital apron an elongate triangle or circular.... Genital apron distinctly wider than 7. Genital apron a narrowly pointed triangle with lateral margins definitely longer than dorsal margin; gradually depressed in profile. Scutum usually as wide as or wider than long; with few, scattered large punctations; uncommonly with scat tering of smaller punctations; surface frequently rugose. Usually large ticks... .H. IMPRESSUM Figures 176 and 177 .5 ..H. RUFIPES Figures 184 and 185 .H. TURANICUM Figures 206 and 207 ..7 ..10 .H. DROMEDARII Figures 164 and 165 Genital apron circular or a less narrow- 8. Genital apron a triangle bounded on each Genital apron circular or triangular but lacking lateral lobes; greatly bulging or gradually depressed in profile. Scutum usually with very few punctations... 9. Genital apron triangular; gradually depressed except when greatly en gorged but never convex in profile. Scutum smooth and shiny with very few, scattered punctations of large size; uncommonly with superficial small punctations. Usually moderate size.... Genital apron small, triangular or circular, convex or bulging in profile. Scutum usually lacking smooth, shiny appearance of H. detritum; few, scattered punctations, those present small or møderate size; almost never large. Usually small size and narrow shape.. .H. IMPELTATUM Figures 172 and 173 .9 .H. DETRITUM Figures 160 and 161 .H. EXCAVATUM Figures 168 and 169 Figures 190 and 191, d, dorsal and ventral views A, Q, genital area. B to D, genital apron, outline and profile. HY ALOMMA AEGYPTIUM Specimens from Land Tortoise, Eastern Anatolia Hoogstraal Collection PLATE LV - 513 HY ALOMMA AEGYPTIUM (Linne, 1758). (Figures 190 to 193) THE TORTOISE HYALOMMA The much mooted name H. aegyptium has been frequently used as a "catchall" by workers in many countries for a number of species. Consequently much literature referring to Hyalomma ticks has been hopelessly confused, even to the present day. King (1926) lumped all Sudan species under the name H. aegyptium*, as did most other workers on African and Near Eastern ticks of his time. H. aegyptium (Linne, 1758) is now recognized as a distinct parasite of tortoises in the Mediterranean area and Near East. In Russia it is confined to Crimea, Georgia, Armenia, the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Turkmen, Uzbek, and Tadzhik (Pomerantzev 1950). It is common in many parts of Asia Minor (Hoogstraal, ms.) and occurs in Afghanistan (Anastos 1954). The tortoise hyalomma does not occur in the Sudan, elsewhere in tropical or southern Africa, or in Europe away from the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas. Although originally described from Egypt, where tortoises are said to have been numerous on the Medi terranean littoral, H. aegyptium apparently is now extinct here. In present-day Egypt, tortoises occur only a few miles east of the Libyan border - extremely rarely as far as seventy miles east of Libya and in Sinai a few miles west of Palestine. No ticks have been found on recent Egyptian tortoises, except on specimens from Palestine in Cairo pet-shops. Tortoises are the hosts of predilection of adult H. aegyptium. Exceptionally, lizards, hares, and hedgehogs are attacked. While other mammals may be infested rarely, long lists of various hosts for this tick are all erroneous, based as they are on old records in which all species were lumped under the name H. aegyptium. In *With reference to reports of "H. aegyptium" from the Sudan, it should be noted that the actual tick species with which O'Farrell (1913A,B), did his interesting work on an entomogenus trypanosome, Crithidia (?Herpetomonas) hyalommae, cannot now be determined. |