Haemaphysalis indica Warburton, 1910

Guglielmone, Alberto A., Nava, Santiago & Robbins, Richard G., 2023, Geographic distribution of the hard ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) of the world by countries and territories, Zootaxa 5251 (1), pp. 1-274 : 88

69. Haemaphysalis indica Warburton, 1910 .

Afrotropical: 1) Oman; Oriental: 1) India, 2) Nepal (south and central), 3) Pakistan (east), 4) Sri Lanka; Palearctic: 1) Iran (Hoogstraal 1970a, 1980, Hoogstraal & Kim 1985, Geevarghese & Mishra 2011, Liyanaarachchi et al. 2015 a, Pun et al. 2018).

The geographic distribution of Haemaphysalis indica should be considered provisional, and records published prior to the redescription of this tick by Hoogstraal (1970a) are not included in this analysis. However, Hoogstraal & Kim (1985) regarded Haemaphysalis indica as polytypic and treated its range as unusual. Geevarghese & Mishra (2011) did not regard localities outside India as being within the range of Haemaphysalis indica . Camicas et al. (1998) considered Haemaphysalis indica an exclusively Oriental species, but the Afrotropical and Palearctic Regions are here provisionally included within its range.

Hosseini-Chegeni et al. (2019) did not include Haemaphysalis indica in their list of Iranian ticks, and that country is only provisionally considered within this species’ range.

Hoogstraal (1970a) argued that all African records of Haemaphysalis indica are erroneous; nevertheless, Keirans (1985b) reexamined six African specimens identified as Haemaphysalis leachi , five from Malawi and one from Sierra Leone, and in his opinion all of them corresponded to Haemaphysalis indica . These specimens should be further evaluated, but at this time Malawi and Sierra Leone are not included within the range of Haemaphysalis indica . Kolonin (2009) listed Haemaphysalis indica as found in Afghanistan, but its presence there is treated here as unconfirmed. Heath & Palma (2016) discovered that an alleged male of Haemaphysalis leachi found on an extinct New Zealand bird was in fact Haemaphysalis indica , although the specimen was not of New Zealand origin, having been contaminated in Europe when the bird skin was sent there for an exhibition.