Ixodes berlesei Birula, 1895

Ixodes berlesei Birula, 1895: 353.

Recorded hosts.

Aves: Apus pacificus (Latham) (Pacific swift), Corvus frugilegus Linnaeus (rook), Falco rusticolus Linnaeus (gyrfalcon), Falco tinnunculus Linnaeus (common kestrel), Monticola solitarius (blue rock thrush), Montifringilla nivalis (Linnaeus) (white-winged snowfinch), Phoenicurus erythrogastrus (Güldenstädt) (Güldenstädt’s redstart), Phoenicurus ochruros (black redstart), Phoenicurus erythronotus (Eversmann’s redstart), Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus) (snow bunting), Prunella collaris (Scopoli) (alpine accentor), Sturnus vulgaris (common starling), Tichodroma muraria (Linnaeus) (wallcreeper) (Filippova 1977; Voltsyt 1997).

Recorded locations

(Fig. 30). Russia: Dagestan (Filippova 1977), Western Siberia – Salair Ridge, Kuznetsk Alatau (Chunihin 1967), Eastern Siberia – banks of the Angara River (Birula 1895) and Buryatia (Ikatsky Ridge) (Emelyanova et al. 1963), Bering Island (Voltsyt 1997). Kazakhstan: Trans-Ili Alatau (Grebenyuk 1966). Kyrgyzstan: Aksay Valley (Grebenyuk 1966). Turkmenistan: outskirts of Ashgabad (Filippova 1977). Tajikistan: Hisar Range, Varzob gorge (Ivanov 1945; Lotozky 1945).

Ecology and other information.

Ixodes berlesei is a little studied nidicolous tick occurring in the Greater Caucasus, as well as in Middle Asia and Siberia. There is one report about a finding of this tick on the Bering Island belonging to the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea, a female and three larvae collected 26 August 1990 from a snow bunting and deposited at the collection of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University (Voltsyt 1997). The author states that the date of the tick collection indicates the presence of a permanent population of this species on the island because in the end of August birds usually already are prepared for the autumn migration after the breeding period, and, therefore, ticks could not have been transported there from the continent. Hence, we could assume that probably the real distribution of this tick is much wider and includes mountainous areas not only in a warmer and temperate climate but also in cooler tundra and other climatically similar landscapes. The snow bunting as a host of this species also was registered for the first time. Overall, its hosts include birds nesting usually in rocks and feeding on the ground and during the flight (Filippova 1977).

The type specimen is deposited at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences - holotype: female; 683, [Russia, Siberia] Angara, 1867, Chekanovskii, type; AL I 528. Description – Filippova 1977: 230–236 (female, nymph, larva; male unknown) (Filippova 2008).