Original scientific paper
Morphology of the hard tick larvae Heamaphysalis concinna, H. punctata and H. sulcata
Franjo Martinković
orcid.org/0000-0002-8005-9592
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Iva Štimac
Abstract
Hard ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) are ectoparasites that feed on the blood of wild and domestic, terrestrial or semi-aquatic vertebrates. They are spread worldwide and transmit various causative agents of both animal and human diseases. One of the genera, the genus Haemaphysalis Koch, 1844, is known to contain 172 different species. There are at least eight species of the genus Haemaphysalis in the Western Palearctic region: Haemaphysalis inermis, H. punctata, H. sulcata, H. caucasica, H. concinna, H. hispanica, Haemaphysalis erinacei and H. parva. So far, six species have been found in the Republic of Croatia: H. concinna, H. erinacei, H. inermis, H. parva, H. punctata and H. sulcata which are the vectors of certain causative agents of infectious and parasitic diseases. Since only certain species of the genus Haemaphysalis are proven vectors of causative agents, accurate species identification of the aforementioned hard tick genus is extremely important for the early diagnosis of the diseases. Therefore, the goal of this research was to present the identification keys and morphology of the larvae of our three most similar and most common Haemaphysalis species. In this research, attention is paid to distinguishing the developmental stages of H. concinna, H. punctata and H. sulcata larvae.
Keywords
hard ticks; morphology; Haemaphysalis concinna; H. punctata; H, sulcata
Hrčak ID:
295355
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2022.
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