Amblyomma sylvaticum ( De Geer, 1778 )

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 : 122

119. Amblyomma sylvaticum ( De Geer, 1778) .

An Afrotropical species, all of whose parasitic stages are usually found on Testudines : Testudinidae , but they have also been collected from Squamata : Colubridae . Larvae alone have been recovered from Rodentia : Muridae , and Squamata : Agamidae and Lacertidae (Guglielmone et al. 2014, Horak et al. 2018). There are no records of Amblyomma sylvaticum causing human parasitism.

M: De Geer (1778), under the name Acarus sylvaticus and given its current status in Koch (1844a)

F: De Geer (1778), under the name Acarus sylvaticus

N: Neumann (1899)

L: Theiler (1943a)

Redescriptions

M: Neumann (1899) , Bedford and Hewitt (1925), Theiler (1943a), Horak et al. (2018); see note below

F: Neumann (1899) , Theiler (1943a), Horak et al. (2018); see note below

N: Bedford and Hewitt (1925), Warburton (1927, under the name Aponomma latum ) as explained in Bequaert (1932), Theiler (1943a), Horak et al. (2018); see note below

L: Voltzit and Keirans (2003); see note below.

Note: the name Amblyomma sylvaticum was not accepted by Dönitz (1909, 1910a) and Robinson (1926), who instead used the name Amblyomma latum ( Koch, 1844a) for Hyalomma latum Koch, 1844a , when in fact describing Amblyomma sylvaticum , as explained in Bequaert (1932). Voltzit and Keirans (2003) state that the nymph of Amblyomma sylvaticum remains undescribed, providing no further elaboration, but the above descriptions of the nymph are treated here as correct. These latter authors also state that the scutum of the male of Amblyomma sylvaticum is inornate, but most workers have found it to be ornate. Additionally, Amblyomma latum of Koch (1844a, page 231) is treated as a synonym of Amblyomma sylvaticum by Voltzit and Keirans (2003), but it is a valid species. Even so, the descriptions of Amblyomma sylvaticum in Voltzit and Keirans (2003) are accepted as valid in Horak et al. (2018), and we regard as provisionally valid the redescription of the larva in Voltzit and Keirans (2003) because the specimens used in their redescription were collected from the preferred host of this tick and broadly agree with the description of the larva of Amblyomma sylvaticum in Theiler (1943a) . See also Amblyomma latum .