Amblyomma sparsum Neumann, 1899

Guglielmone, Alberto A., Petney, Trevor N. & Robbins, Richard G., 2020, Ixodidae (Acari: Ixodoidea): descriptions and redescriptions of all known species from 1758 to December 31, 2019, Zootaxa 4871 (1), pp. 1-322 : 120-121

115. Amblyomma sparsum Neumann, 1899 .

An Afrotropical species whose adults are usually found on Artiodactyla : Bovidae , Perissodactyla : Rhinocerotidae , and Testudines : Testudinidae . Guglielmone et al. (2014) stated that all parasitic stages of Amblyomma sparsum have been collected from several orders of mammals, but no larvae of this species have been collected from mammals ( Guglielmone et al. 2015, Guglielmone & Robbins 2018). All parasitic stages of Amblyomma sparsum have been found on Testudines : Testudinidae . Adults and nymphs have been recovered from Squamata : Pythonidae and Varanidae , and Mammalia (several orders); adults alone have been collected from Squamata : Agamidae , Colubridae and Viperidae ; and immature stages have been found on Macroscelidea : Macroscelididae , Squamata : Elapidae and Iguanidae , Bucerotiformes : Upupidae , and Passeriformes : Viduidae . Amblyomma sparsum is a very rare parasite of humans.

M: Neumann (1899)

F: Neumann (1901) , under the name Amblyomma marmoreum from a specimen previously identified as Amblyomma devium , as explained in Theiler and Salisbury (1959)

N: Theiler and Salisbury (1959)

L: Theiler and Salisbury (1959)

Redescriptions

M: Theiler and Salisbury (1959), Elbl and Anastos (1966a), Matthysse and Colbo (1987), Voltzit and Keirans (2003), Horak et al. (2018)

F: Theiler and Salisbury (1959), Elbl and Anastos (1966a), Matthysse and Colbo (1987), Voltzit and Keirans (2003), Horak et al. (2018)

N: Borght-Elbl (1977), Voltzit and Keirans (2003)

L: Camicas (1970), Borght-Elbl (1977), Voltzit and Keirans (2003)

Note: according to Theiler and Salisbury (1959), figures of the male of Amblyomma marmoreum in Dönitz (1910a) and, tacitly, in Dönitz (1909) correspond to Amblyomma sparsum . See Amblyomma marmoreum for a discussion of additional problems concerning the identity of species in the Amblyomma marmoreum group, to which Amblyomma sparsum belongs. Matthysse and Colbo (1987) believe that differences in host utilization and in the geographic distribution of A. sparsum populations may indicate that more than one species exists under this name.