Argasidae

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Argasidae
Temporal range: Cretaceous–present
Otobius megnini.jpg
Otobius megnini
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Ixodida
Superfamily: Ixodoidea
Family: Argasidae
C. L. Koch, 1844
Genera
Diversity
17 genera, about 220 species.

The Argasidae are the family of soft ticks, one of the three families of extant ticks. The family contains 220 species, although the composition of the genera is less certain, and more study is needed before the taxonomy is resolved. [1] The Argasidae are very common in South Asia, along with around 100 other species of ticks from other lineages, making South Asia the region with the highest biodiversity of ticks worldwide. [2] Soft ticks are resistant to desiccation and can live for several years in arid conditions.

Contents

Physical characteristics

Soft ticks lack the hard scutum present in the hard ticks (Ixodidae). [3] The gnathosoma (or capitulum, the mouthparts-bearing structure) is located on the underside of the animal's body and is not readily visible, [3] while in the Ixodidae, the gnathosoma projects forward from the body. The lateral edges of the body are rounded.

Systematics

Argasid systematics remain in flux. There have been as many as four major conflicting taxonomic 'schools' over time, which all conflict in some way with contemporary molecular phylogenies. As such, there is an ongoing research effort to align finds from molecular systematics with pre-existing morphological based species constructs. As of 2025, the most up-to-date classification scheme and species list follows from Mans et al. (2021), comprising 220 taxa in 17 genera: [4] [5] [6] [7] [a]

Argasinae
GeneraSubgenera# spp.
Alveonasus Neumann, 1908(Alveonasus)7
Argas Latreille, 1795(Argas, Persicargas)44
Navis Mans et al., 2019(Navis)1 (or 2?)
Ogadenus Neumann, 1907(Ogadenus)1
Proknekalia Keirans et al., 1977(Proknekalia)3
Secretargas Hoogstraal, 1957(Secretargas)3
59
Ornithodorinae
GeneraSubgenera# spp.
Alectorobius Pocock, 1907(Alectorobius)64
Antricola Cooley & Kohls, 1942(Antricola, Parantricola)17
Apanaskevichiella Barker et al., 20251
Australpavlovskyella Barker et al., 20251
Carios Latreille, 1796(Carios)8
Chiropterargas Hoogstraal, 1955(Chiropterargas)4
Nothoaspis Keirans and Clifford, 1975(Nothoaspis)3
Ornithodoros C. L. Koch, 1837(Microargas, Ornamentum, Ornithodoros, Pavlovskyella, Theriodoros)46
Otobius Banks, 1912(Otobius)2
Reticulinasus Schulze, 1941(Reticulinasus)12
Subparmatus Clifford et al., 1964(Subparmatus)3
161

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Note 1: See the Supplementary material for complete species listings, in Mans et al. 2021 ("Appendix 1: Proposed revision for the Argasidae"), or earlier in Mans et al. 2019 ("Table S10: Revised species and subgenus classification for the Argasidae").

References

  1. ↑ Alberto A. Guglielmone; Richard G. Robbing; Dmitry A. Apanaskevich; Trevor N. Petney; Agustín Estrada-Peña; Ivan G. Horak; Renfu Shao; Stephen C. Barker (2010). "The Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae (Acari: Ixodida) of the world: a list of valid species names" (PDF). Zootaxa . 2528: 1–28. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2528.1.1. hdl:11336/97869. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-07-24. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  2. ↑ Robbins, Richard G.; Petney, David A.; Muders, Senta V.; Putthasorn, Noppadon; Ahamad, Mariana; Andrews, Ross H.; Eamudomkarn, Chatanun; Pfeffer, Martin; Chitimia-Dobler, Lidia (2019-02-17). "Ticks (Argasidae, Ixodidae) and tick-borne diseases of continental Southeast Asia". Zootaxa. 4558 (1): 1–89. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4558.1.1. ISSN   1175-5334. PMID   30790915. S2CID   73505644.
  3. 1 2 D. H. Molyneux (1993). "Vectors". In Francis E. G. Cox (ed.). Modern parasitology: a textbook of parasitology (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 53–74. ISBN   978-0-632-02585-5.
  4. ↑ Mans, Ben J.; Kelava, Samuel; Pienaar, Ronel; Featherston, Jonathan; de Castro, Minique H.; Quetglas, Juan; Reeves, Will K.; Durden, Lance A.; Miller, Myrna M.; Laverty, Theresa M.; Shao, Renfu; Takano, Ai; Kawabata, Hiroki; Moustafa, Mohamed Abdallah Mohamed; Nakao, Ryo (2021-07-01). "Nuclear (18S-28S rRNA) and mitochondrial genome markers of Carios (Carios) vespertilionis (Argasidae) support Carios Latreille, 1796 as a lineage embedded in the Ornithodorinae: re-classification of the Carios sensu Klompen and Oliver (1993) clade into its respective subgenera" . Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases. 12 (4) 101688. doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101688. ISSN   1877-959X.
  5. ↑ Mans, Ben J.; Chitimia-Dobler, Lidia; Pienaar, Ronel; de Castro, Minique; Khan, Mehran; Almutairi, Mashal M.; Alouffi, Abdulaziz; Ali, Abid (2024). "Mitochondrial genome and nuclear ribosomal RNA analysis place Alveonasus lahorensis within the Argasinae and suggest that the genus Alveonasus is paraphyletic". Parasitology. 151 (9): 908–917. doi:10.1017/S0031182024000441. ISSN   1469-8161. PMC   11770517 . PMID   38586995.
  6. ↑ Mans, Ben J.; Featherston, Jonathan; Kvas, Marija; Pillay, Kerry-Anne; de Klerk, Daniel G.; Pienaar, Ronel; de Castro, Minique H.; Schwan, Tom G.; Lopez, Job E.; Teel, Pete; Pérez de León, Adalberto A.; Sonenshine, Daniel E.; Egekwu, Noble I.; Bakkes, Deon K.; Heyne, Heloise (2019-01-01). "Argasid and ixodid systematics: Implications for soft tick evolution and systematics, with a new argasid species list". Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases. 10 (1): 219–240. doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.09.010. ISSN   1877-959X.
  7. ↑ Barker, Stephen C.; Kelava, Samuel; Shaw, Matthew D.; etc (2025). "Two new genera for the Australian species of the subgenus Pavlovskyella Pospelova-Shtrom, 1950 (genus Ornithodoros Koch, 1844) (Acari: Ixodida: Argasidae: Ornithodorinae): Apanaskevichiella gen. nov. for O. (P.) macmillani Hoogstraal & Kohls, 1966; and Australpavlovskyella gen. nov. for O. (P.) gurneyi Warburton, 1926". Zootaxa. 5686 (3): 339–372. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5686.3.2.


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