| Margaropus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dorsal view of Margaropus female, with inset of male posterior below | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Ixodida |
| Family: | Ixodidae |
| Genus: | Margaropus Ferdinand Karsch, 1879 |
| Type species | |
| Margaropus winthemi | |
Margaropus is a genus of ticks. [2] Found in Africa, the genus is known best from Giraffidae.
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Margaropus ticks are characterised as inornate, having eyes, lacking festoons, and with the legs of the male increasing in size from pair I to IV with the segments enlarged, giving them a beaded appearance, from which the genus name was taken, margaritopus signifying beady-legged. [3]
In their native range, Margaropus species ticks parasitize larger land animals, including the three largest southern African wild ruminants, giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis ; African buffaloes, Syncerus caffer ; and common eland, Taurotragus oryx . [4]
Although the genus is no longer considered a sister taxa to Boophilus, it may be a subgenus of, or the sister taxa to, Rhipicephalus. [5]
