Published December 2, 2025 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Amblyomma gervaisi

  • 1. Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan
  • 2. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
  • 3. Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
  • 4. Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, Immunology, Infection and Pandemic Research IIP, Munich, Germany & Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, LMU, Munich, Germany
  • 5. Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan & Centro de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande de Sul, Avenida Bento Gonçalves, Porto Alegre 9500, 91501 - 970, RS, Brazil

Description

Amblyomma gervaisi (Lucas, 1847)

Distribution

This species is known from Lahore, Multan (McCarthy 1967; Auffenberg & Auffenberg 1990), and central and northern KP (Ali et al. 2019; Khan, M. et al. 2022).

Morphological characters

Male (Fig. 11, A–D): Body teardrop shaped, approximately 3.90± 0.2 mm long and 2.44± 0.1 mm wide, dorsoventrally flattened with posterior end broader than anterior; conscutum subcircular and ornate, punctations medium-sized and evenly distributed; cervical grooves short, deep and comma-shaped; ventral surface consisting of two paired and three unpaired plates: the adanal and accessory plates, and the pregenital plate, median plate and anal plate; legs stout, arising from ventrolateral region; coxa I with two broad, flattened and pointed spurs, external spur shorter than internal spur, coxae II–III each with a short, single, pointed spur, coxae IV with triangular spur; tarsi with a pair of sharply pointed, curved claws; basis capituli flask-shaped, dorsoventrally round, dorsal surface smooth with punctations, ventral surface bears 4–5 setae on each lateral margin; hypostome cylindrical, covered by denticles arranged in overlapping rows and terminating in a distinct corona, dental formula 3/3, with small teeth; palpal segments 1 and 2 fused, palpal bases with two long setae; genital aperture situated at level of coxae II, genital aperture oval, lacking setae; spiracular plates located ventro-laterally behind coxae IV, spiracular plate oval and concave, with tapering dorsal prolongation.

Female (Fig. 11, E–H): Body approximately 3.97± 0.2 mm long and 2.49± 0.1 mm wide, larger than male and dorsoventrally flattened, posterior region broader than anterior region; scutum covering one-third of body, with small punctations; cervical grooves deep, elongate, comma shaped; ventral body surface lacking sclerotized plates other than genital; dorsal surface of basis capituli with two longitudinally elongate porose areas; hypostome arising from basis capituli ventrally and equal in length to palps, dental formula 3/3; palpal segments 1 and 2 fused; coxal spurs similar to those of male, spur of coxa IV slightly longer than those of coxae II and III; genital aperture situated between coxae II, posterior lip of genital aperture U-shaped; spiracular plates located ventrolaterally behind coxae IV, oval and concave, with tapering dorsal prolongation.

Notes

Published as part of Ali, Abid, Almutairi, Mashal M., Robbins, Richard G., Chitimia-Dobler, Lidia & Ullah, Shafi, 2025, Updated checklist, morphological descriptions, hosts and vector potential of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Pakistan, pp. 151-202 in Zootaxa 5725 (2) on page 165, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5725.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/17868710

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

References

  • Lucas, H. (1847) Ixodes gervaisii et Ixodes fusco-lineatus nn. spp. Bulletin de la Societe Entomologique de France, Serie 2, 5, 99-101.
  • McCarthy, V. C. (1967) Ixodid Ticks (Acarina, Ixodidae) of West Pakistan. Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 533 pp.
  • Auffenberg, W. & Auffenberg, T. (1990) The reptile tick Aponomma gervaisi (Acarina: Ixodidae) as a parasite of monitor lizards in Pakistan and India. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History, 35 (1), 1-34. https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.odud2059
  • Ali, A., Khan, M. A., Zahid, H., Yaseen, P. M., Qayash Khan, M., Nawab, J., Ur Rehman, Z., Ateeq, M., Khan, S. & Ibrahim, M. (2019) Seasonal dynamics, record of ticks infesting humans, wild and domestic animals and molecular phylogeny of Rhipicephalus microplus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. Frontiers in Physiology, 10, 793. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00793