Ixodes rasus Neumann, 1899

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 : 29-30

197. Ixodes rasus Neumann, 1899 .

Afrotropical: 1) Cameroon, 2) Central African Republic, 3) Congo, 4) Democratic Republic of the Congo, 5) Equatorial Guinea, 6) Gabon, 7) Ghana, 8) Guinea, 9) Ivory Coast, 10) Malawi, 11) Nigeria, 12) Rwanda, 13) Senegal, 14) South Sudan, 15) Togo, 16) Uganda, 17) Zambia, 18) Zimbabwe ( Rousselot 1951, Arthur & Burrow 1957, Elbl & Anastos 1966b, Aeschlimann 1967, Matthysse & Colbo 1987, Konstantinov et al. 1990, Morel 2003, Ntiamoa-Baidu et al. 2004, Pourrut et al. 2011, Uilenberg et al. 2013).

Keirans (1985b) found that several specimens of Ixodes rasus in the Nuttall Tick Collection were, in fact, Ixodes cumulatimpunctatus .

Kolonin (2009) vaguely discussed the geographic distribution of Ixodes rasus , stating that it is found from Senegal eastward to Kenya and southward to Zimbabwe. Guglielmone & Robbins (2018) maintained that the geographic distribution of Ixodes rasus is not well defined, and these authors did not include Malawi, Senegal, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe within the range of this tick. Specimens of Ixodes rasus from southern Africa, including Zimbabwe (as southern Rhodesia) in Nuttall (1916) and Cooley (1934) were found to belong to another species ( Hoogstraal 1956a, Arthur & Burrow 1957). However, Norval et al. (1987) stated that Ixodes rasus was collected in Zimbabwe after 1957, although specimens were unavailable for further evaluation, while Arthur & Burrow (1957) stated that Ixodes rasus has been found in Zambia (as northern Rhodesia). Nevertheless, Morel (2003) doubted the presence of this tick in Zimbabwe and Zambia, and Colbo (1973) and Tandon (1991) did not list Ixodes rasus from Zambia. Zimbabwe and Zambia as well as Malawi and Senegal, countries that are also named by Arthur & Burrow (1957), are provisionally included within the range of Ixodes rasus , pending further morphological and molecular studies of this problematic species.

Nuttall (1916) diagnosed as Ixodes rasus a specimen collected in Ethiopia, but Keirans (1985b) reexamined the specimen and identified it as Ixodes sp. Elbl & Anastos (1966b) listed as valid a record of Ixodes rasus from Kenya, but Walker (1974) stated that the presence of this tick in that country requires confirmation. Ethiopia and Kenya are therefore excluded from the range of Ixodes rasus .

D’Amico et al. (2018) redescribed the male and female of Ixodes rasus and obtained sequences of the 16S rDNA gene from specimens collected in the Central African Republic, but Guglielmone et al. (2020) doubted that the specimens used by those authors represent bona fide Ixodes rasus because of morphological differences between the redescriptions of other authors and the original description.