Amblyomma patinoi Nava et al., 2014

Benavides-Montaño, Javier Antonio, Betancourt-Echeverri, Jesus Antonio, Valencia, Gustavo López & Mesa-Cobo, Nora Cristina, 2022, A review of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) in Colombia: The risk of tick-borne diseases, Persian Journal of Acarology 11 (3), pp. 397-437 : 408

Amblyomma patinoi Nava et al., 2014 ( Fig. 5)

As we mentioned previously, this tick is part of the A. cajennnense complex, characterized by six species: A. mixtum , A. patinoi , A. cajjenense s.s., A. interandinum , A. tonellidae , and A. sculptum ( Rivera-Paez et al. 2016) . This species was originally described as indigenous from Villeta, Cundinamarca, by Dr. Luis Patiño Camargo in his study regarding identification of rickettsioses in this area ( Patino et al. 1937). Holotypes, allotypes and paratypes collected by M.B. Labruna, E. Benavides, and G. Valbuena on cattle, vegetation and horses are housed at the National Tick Collection (CNC), at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnique (FMVZ) of University of Sao Paulo (USP). In Colombia, A. patinoi has been collected from cattle, horses, and vegetation ( Nava et al. 2014); presently it is considered to be distributed along the eastern range of Colombia ( Beati et al. 2013). The males of A. mixtum are very similar to those of A. patinoi . It is possible to distinguish them by their particular body outline, which is round in A. mixtum and oval in A. patinoi whereas females of A. mixtum and A. patinoi are easily differentiated. However, a clear classification depends on the ticks' preservation ( Nava et al. 2014). This species is the only known vector of rickettsia that causes the Rocky Mountain spotted fever (R.M.S.F.) in the endemic area of Cundinamarca, Colombia. In this department, Faccini-Martinez et al. (2015) were able to isolate R. rickettsii , the agent of the deadly R.M.S.F., from the A. patinoi tick, in addition to detecting R. amblyommii .