Ixodes vespertilionis Koch, 1844c

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 : 37-38

258. Ixodes vespertilionis Koch, 1844c .

Afrotropical: 1) Kenya, 2) South Africa, 3) South Sudan, 4) Uganda; Oriental: 1) China (south), 2) Laos, 3) Taiwan, 4) Thailand; Palearctic: 1) Afghanistan, 2) Algeria, 3) Armenia, 4) Austria, 5) Azerbaijan, 6) Belgium, 7) Bulgaria, 8) Bosnia and Herzegovina, 9) China (north), 10) Croatia, 11) Czechia, 12) France, 13) Germany, 14) Great Britain, 15) Greece, 16) Hungary, 17) Iran, 18) Ireland, 19) Israel, 20) Italy, 21) Japan (except the Ryukyu Islands), 22) Kazakhstan, 23) Kyrgyzstan, 24) Lebanon, 25) Moldova, 26) Montenegro, 27) Morocco, 28) Netherlands, 29) North Macedonia, 30) Palestine, 31) Poland, 32) Portugal, 33) Romania, 34) Russia, 35) Serbia, 36) Slovakia, 37) Slovenia, 38) South Korea, 39) Spain, 40) Switzerland, 41) Tajikistan, 42) Turkey, 43) Turkmenistan, 44) Ukraine ( Feider 1965, Hoogstraal 1973 a, Filippova 1977, Tanskul et al. 1983, Keirans 1985b, Cringoli et al. 2005, Robbins 2005, Kolonin 2009, Chen et al. 2010, Siuda et al. 2009, Santos-Silva et al. 2011, Kim et al. 2011b, Bursali et al. 2012, Bush & Robbins 2012, Fedorova 2012, Krčmar 2012, Nowak-Chmura & Siuda 2012, Petney et al. 2012, Burazerovic et al. 2015, Benda et al. 2016, Estrada-Peña et al. 2017, Vongphayloth et al. 2018 a, Hosseini-Chegeni et al. 2019, Petney et al. 2019, Hornok et al. 2020a, Tsapko 2020, Rubel et al. 2021, Rubel & Brugger 2022).

Zhao et al. (2021) excluded Taiwan from the range of Ixodes vespertilionis , but it is included here.

Ixodes vespertilionis has long been regarded as occurring in the Australasian Zoogeographic Region. Nuttall & Warburton (1911) listed South Australia as being within the range of this tick, but they confused a South African locality with a South Australian one. Later, Roberts (1960) maintained that Ixodes vespertilionis was an Australian tick, a view subsequently refuted in Roberts (1970). No bona fide specimens of Ixodes vespertilionis have been recorded from Australia or other countries and territories within the Australasian Region. Even so, Martyn (1988), Hillyard (1996) and Chalada et al. (2016) have continued to regard this tick as present in Australia. The Albanian record of Ixodes vespertilionis “ circa 1906” probably resulted from collections made in localities that are now part of the nation of Serbia ( Vrenozi & Dunlop 2013). The record of Ixodes vespertilionis in Nigeria by Okeke et al. (2020) requires confirmation. Therefore, all these countries are tentatively excluded from the range of Ixodes vespertilionis

Hornok et al. (2015) found molecular evidence supporting the argument that more than one species exists under the name Ixodes vespertilionis , a hypothesis confirmed with the description of the morphologically related species Ixodes collaris . Perhaps as yet undescribed new species await discovery in tick collections bearing the name Ixodes vespertilionis , but that will require examination of the type specimens of the more than ten names currently regarded as synonyms of Ixodes vespertilionis ( Guglielmone & Nava 2014) .