Ixodes caledonicus Nuttall 1910

40. Ixodes caledonicus Nuttall, 1910.

Palearctic: 1) Azerbaijan, 2) Denmark, 3) France, 4) Germany, 5) Great Britain, 6) Iceland, 7) Ireland, 8) Italy, 9) Kyrgyzstan, 10) Morocco, 11) Norway, 12) Poland, 13) Russia, 14) Slovenia, 15) Sweden, 16) Switzerland, 17) Tajikistan, 18) Ukraine (Bailly-Choumara et al. 1980, Morel & Aeschlimann 1983, Tovornik 1990; Jaenson et al. 1994, Cringoli et al. 2005, Kolonin 2009, Fedorova 2012, Nowak-Chmura & Siuda 2012, Richter et al. 2013, Estrada-Peña et al. 2017, Tsapko 2020).

There are difficulties attending the identification of Ixodes caledonicus, and Morel & Aeschlimann (1983) stressed the problems involved in morphologically separating Ixodes caledonicus, Ixodes berlesei and Ixodes semenovi (under the genus Scaphixodes). Guglielmone et al. (2020) noted that authors differ in their morphological definition of Ixodes caledonicus, stating that additional studies are needed to support the conspecificity of populations of Ixodes caledonicus over this tick´s vast range.

Morel & Aeschlimann (1983) treated their record of Ixodes caledonicus from Switzerland as provisional. Petney et al. (2012) regarded Germany as outside the range of Ixodes caledonicus and doubted its presence in Poland, while Rubel et al. (2021) also did not include this tick as found in Germany. However, Estrada-Peña et al. (2017) included Poland and Germany as well as Great Britain, Denmark and Italy within their restricted range of Ixodes caledonicus in Europe, together with northern Africa, which contrasts with the geographic distribution presented here. Jaenson et al. (1994) also listed Ixodes caledonicus as a tick found in Germany, a country that is provisionally included within the range of Ixodes caledonicus along with Denmark, Great Britain, Italy and Poland.

Sukhiashvili et al. (2020) listed Ixodes caledonicus as found in Georgia based on eight specimens collected from cattle, but this tick is usually a parasite of Aves; therefore, the record of Sukhiashvili et al. (2020) requires confirmation, and Georgia is not included within the geographical distribution of Ixodes caledonicus.