Rhipicephalus pravus D ö nitz, 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 : 126

61. Rhipicephalus pravus D ö nitz, 1910 a.

Afrotropical: 1) Djibouti, 2) Eritrea, 3) Ethiopia, 4) Kenya, 5) Somalia, 6) South Sudan, 7) Tanzania, 8) Uganda ( Walker et al. 2000, Kolonin 2009, Byaruhanga et al. 2021, Olivieri et al. 2021).

Rhipicephalus pravus is a controversial species that has been widely confused with Rhipicephalus kochi , as discussed in Walker et al. (2000). Additionally, Keirans (1985b) reported six congeners that have been confused with Rhipicephalus pravus .

Data for Rhipicephalus pravus are mostly derived from the study of Walker et al. (2000), who redescribed Rhipicephalus pravus and discussed Rhipicephalus sp. near pravus , which is morphologically almost identical to Rhipicephalus pravus . Nevertheless, “near pravus ” is treated as a separate species based on differences in geographic distribution and the fact that several specimens previously known as Rhipicephalus sp. near pravus were later identified as a new species, Rhipicephalus warburtoni .

In general, Rhipicephalus pravus is treated as an East African species (see above for the countries where this tick has been found), according to Walker et al. (2000), while Rhipicephalus sp. near pravus occurs in southern Africa, including Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia. Walker et al. (2000) listed South Africa within the range of “near pravus ,” but South African specimens were later identified as Rhipicephalus warburtoni , as discussed in Horak et al. (2018). Until the taxonomic status of Rhipicephalus sp. near pravus is clarified, the southern limit of Rhipicephalus pravus will remain uncertain.

Shekede et al. (2021) reported Rhipicephalus pravus from Zimbabwe, but because of the confused status of this species, this finding requires confirmation, and Zimbabwe is provisionally excluded here. Nyabogo et al. (2021) included Burundi within the range of Rhipicephalus pravus , based on Kaiser et al. (1988), but the latter authors do not mention its presence there. Farooqi et al. (2017) and others listed Rhipicephalus pravus as occurring in Pakistan, probably due to misidentification.