Amblyomma helvolum Koch, 1844a

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 : 49

55. Amblyomma helvolum Koch, 1844a .

Australasian: 1) Indonesia (east of Wallace´s Line); Oriental: 1) China (south), 2) India, 3) Indonesia (west of Wallace’s Line), 4) Laos, 5) Malaysia, 6) Philippines, 7) Singapore, 8) Taiwan, 9) Thailand, 10) Vietnam ( Kohls 1950b, 1957 c, Wilson 1969, Tanskul et al. 1983, Keirans 1985b, Robbins 2005, Durden et al. 2008, Kolonin 2009, Vongphayloth et al. 2016, Petney et al. 2019, Kim 2020).

Several records of Amblyomma helvolum have been published under seven names listed as synonyms of this tick in Guglielmone & Nava (2014). See also Amblyomma fimbriatum for its alleged synonymy with Amblyomma helvolum .

Indian records of Amblyomma helvolum refer to the Nicobar Islands, which are closer to Southeast Asia than to the Indian subcontinent. The Indian record of Amblyomma helvolum from West Bengal in Ghosh et al. (2018) is considered doubtful in Guglielmone et al. (2020), and other records from that territory are from hosts in captivity; therefore, West Bengal is not included within the range of this tick. A southern Chinese record is in Kolonin (2009), who referenced specimens unlike the ticks used by Teng (1981) to describe Amblyomma hainanense , a synonym of Amblyomma helvolum in the opinion of Kolonin (2009) and others. Kwak (2018c) treated the presence of Amblyomma helvolum in Singapore as unsubstantiated, but Kohls (1957c) collected this tick in Singapore, and Kwak et al. (2021) later confirmed its presence there.

Kolonin (2009) and Burridge (2011) also stated that Amblyomma helvolum has been found in Sri Lanka, but its presence there is not recognized by Liyanaarachchi et al. (2015a, b), and the Sri Lankan records of Kolonin (2009) and Burridge (2011) require confirmation. Simmons et al. (2002) and Burridge (2011) included Australia and Papua New Guinea within the geographic distribution of Amblyomma helvolum , but there are no confirmed records of this tick from those countries. Consequently, Sri Lanka, Australia and Papua New Guinea are excluded from the range of Amblyomma helvolum .