Ticks are parasitic arachnids of the order Ixodida. They are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, species, and "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. The timing of the origin of ticks is uncertain, though the oldest known tick fossils are from the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years old. Ticks are widely distributed around the world, especially in warm, humid climates.
Carios erraticus, formerly called Ornithodoros erraticus, is a species of tick in the family Argasidae. The tick was described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1849.
Ornithodoros is a genus in the soft-bodied tick family, Argasidae.
Harry Hoogstraal was an American entomologist and parasitologist. He was described as "the greatest authority on ticks and tickborne diseases who ever lived." The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's Harry Hoogstraal Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Entomology honors his contributions to science.
Ornithodoros hermsi is a species of soft tick. It can be infected with Borrelia hermsii.
Ornithodoros moubata, commonly known as the African hut tampan or the eyeless tampan, is a species of tick in the family Argasidae. It is an ectoparasite and vector of relapsing fever in humans, and African swine fever in pigs.
Ticks of domestic animals directly cause poor health and loss of production to their hosts. Ticks also transmit numerous kinds of viruses, bacteria, and protozoa between domestic animals. These microbes cause diseases which can be severely debilitating or fatal to domestic animals, and may also affect humans. Ticks are especially important to domestic animals in tropical and subtropical countries, where the warm climate enables many species to flourish. Also, the large populations of wild animals in warm countries provide a reservoir of ticks and infective microbes that spread to domestic animals. Farmers of livestock animals use many methods to control ticks, and related treatments are used to reduce infestation of companion animals.
Gertrud Theiler was a South African parasitologist and teacher most noted for her work with nematodes and ticks.
Jane Brotherton Walker was a Kenyan-South African scholar in the field of tick taxonomy, particularly in Africa.
Argas walkerae Kaiser & Hoogstraal, 1969, as its common name "fowl tampan" reflects, is a soft-bodied argasid tick primarily parasitizing chickens and other domestic fowl. In South Africa its natural range spans the eastern region of Eastern Cape Province from the warmer coastal regions on the Indian Ocean in the south to the cooler mountainous Drakensberg range in the northeast of the Province, with local distribution more strongly associated with the presence of fowls and wooden fowl houses, than climate alone.
Makram Nasri Kaiser (1930–1996) was a medical and veterinary acarologist who was the world's leading authority on ticks of the genus Hyalomma.
Antricola marginatus is a species of tick in the family Argasidae. Like Nothoaspis, another genus in the same family, Antricola species infest cave-dwelling bats; A. marginatus is found on Cuba and Puerto Rico. Unusually for a tick, A. marginatus shows maternal care of its offspring.
Ornithodoros savignyi, known as sand tampan, African eyed tampan or Kalahari sand tampan, is one of some 37 species in the genus Ornithodoros and is a soft tick with a leathery, mammillated integument, causing paralysis and tampan toxicosis, two unrelated conditions. The sand tampan is an ectoparasite on humans, their livestock and wild animals, including birds and bats. Occurring in semi-desert areas of Africa, Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Persian Gulf, India, Sri Lanka and into Asia, it is able to survive for lengthy periods without feeding, spending most of its life burrowed under sand or loose soil, often in wait for animals that rest or sleep under trees or in the lee of rocks, but also in places where people or their animals congregate such as marketplaces, places of worship, cattle kraals and village squares. The timing of its activity is geared to coincide with that of potential hosts, but hot sunny conditions are usually avoided. Because of its habit of feeding and dropping from its host, adult dispersal is limited, whereas larvae may remain attached to their hosts for several days. During its life cycle it will feed on multiple hosts between moults.
Haemaphysalis luzonensis, the Luzon mountain glossy haemaphysalid, is an ixodid tick native to Luzon Island, Republic of the Philippines first circumscribed by entomologists Dr. Harry Hoogstraal and United States Air Force Maj. Dale Parrish in 1968. Its common name reflects its glossy and nearly apunctate, in comparison to other Haemaphysalis ticks, dorsal integument.
Ornithodoros sawaii is a species of argasid tick that is parasitic on streaked shearwater and Swinhoe's storm petrel seabirds in Japan and Korea. The species name honors Hirofumi Sawa of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
Ornithodoros brasiliensis is a species of tick in the family Argasidae, or soft-bodied ticks, that occurs exclusively in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. O. brasiliensis is a known parasite of humans, dogs, and smaller mammals such as armadillos and skunks.
Ornithodoros coriaceus, the Pajahuello or Pajahuello tick, is a tick that feeds on the blood of mammals and birds. It is widely distributed throughout western North America from southern Mexico to Oregon. Although this species rarely bites humans its bite is considered to be particularly painful. It is the primary vector of the bacterium that causes Epizootic Bovine Abortion, a severe and commercially-important disease afflicting domestic cattle.
Ornithodoros gurneyi, a kangaroo soft tick, is a species of the argasid family. A parasite found in arid regions of Australia, the species occurs on red kangaroos, lizards and people.
Argas theilerae is a species of tick in the family Argasidae. The specific epithet honours South African parasitologist Dr. Gertrud Theiler. It is a parasite of the African white-backed vulture.
