Rhipicephalus

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Rhipicephalus
Rhipicephalus sanguineus.jpg
Rhipicephalus sanguineus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Ixodida
Family: Ixodidae
Genus: Rhipicephalus
Koch, 1844 [1]
Type species
Ixodes sanguineus
Latreille, 1806
Species

About 74–75 species, see text.

Rhipicephalus is a genus of ticks in the family Ixodidae, the hard ticks, consisting of about 74 or 75 species. [2] [3] Most are native to tropical Africa. [2] Several are of medical importance as they can transmit East Coast fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, rickettsiosis, Lyme disease, Q fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In addition they can also transmit Boutonneuse fever, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever in tropical areas .

Contents

Morphology

Rhipicephalus ticks are commonly called 'the brown tick' as they are mostly brown in colour. [4] Most adult ticks in this genus do not have colour patterns on their scutum (inornate). [4] This makes the species difficult to distinguish from one another because most are quite similar, but individuals of one particular species can be quite variable. [3] [4] Ticks have traditionally been identified by examination of distinctive morphological features. Most of the characteristics used to identify species pertain to male specimens. [3] The immature and female specimens are sometimes simply impossible to identify due to the lack of differential morphological features. [3] [4] [5]

Disease potential

Many Rhipicephalus spp. are of economic, medical, and veterinary importance because of their blood feeding lifestyle. They are possible vectors of many pathogens in humans and animals. They can transmit pathogens that cause animal and human diseases, such as East Coast fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, rickettsiosis, [2] Boutonneuse fever, Lyme disease, Q fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever. [6] In addition to the infectious agents spread by ticks, tick bites can lead to allergic and toxic reactions. [7] [8]

Certain species may cause tick-caused paralysis when they inject a neurotoxin with their bite, for example Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi. [9] Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi paralyses only sheep, even though it also feeds on cattle, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, rabbits, or rats. [9]

Sex pheromone studies

A number of Rhipicephalus spp. females produce phenol and p-cresol after being fed for six days. These compounds may act as sex pheromones since these compounds were shown to be the sex pheromone of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus. [10]

Etymology

The name Rhipicephalus is derived from the Greek word rhiphis, meaning "fan-like",[ citation needed ] and κεφαλή, kephalē, meaning "head". The two terms are related to the hexagonal basis capituli of Rhipicephalus.

Species

The genus consists of about 74 or 75 species. [2]

Species in the global domestic environment include the brown dog tick ( Rhipicephalus sanguineus ).

Rhipicephalus bursa is a carrier of babesiosis, theileriosis and anaplasmosis in domestic animals, of the Nairobi sheep disease, and an aggressive vector of the agents of the Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever and of the Q fever. [11]


Subgenus Boophilus

Boophilus was once considered a separate genus, but studies in the early 2000s resulted in Boophilus being made a subgenus of Rhipicephalus. [16] Although Boophilus has been included in the Rhipicephalus genus, their morphology is different from the typical Rhipicephalus species. [5]

References

  1. ↑ Koch, C. L. (1844). "Systematische Übersicht über die Ordnung der Zecken". Archiv für Naturgeschichte. 10 (1): 238–239.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Olwoch, J. M., et al. (2007). Climate change and the genus Rhipicephalus (Acari: Ixodidae) in Africa. Onderstepoort J Vet Res 74(1), 45-72.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Beati, L. and J. E. Keirans. (2001). Analysis of the systematic relationships among ticks of the genera Rhipicephalus and Boophilus (Acari: Ixodidae) based on mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA gene sequences and morphological characters. The Journal of Parasitology 87(1), 32.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Walker, J.B., Keirans, J.E. & Horak, I.G. (2000). The Genus Rhipicephalus (Acari, Ixodidae): A Guide to the Brown Ticks of the World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-48008-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 1 2 Horak, Ivan G.; Heyne, Heloise; Williams, Roy; Gallivan, G. James; Spickett, Arthur M.; Bezuidenhout, J. Dürr; Estrada-Peña, Agustín (2018). The Ixodid Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) of Southern Africa. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-70642-9. ISBN   978-3-319-70640-5.
  6. ↑ Rhipicephalus. Tick Identification Key. University of Lincoln.
  7. ↑ Ahmed, Jabbar; Alp, Hatice; Aksin, Muhammed; Seitzer, Ulrike (2007). "Current status of ticks in Asia" . Parasitology Research. 101 (S2): 159–162. doi:10.1007/s00436-007-0696-3. ISSN   0932-0113.
  8. ↑ Daniel E. Sonenshine, R. Michael Roe (2014). Overview: Ticks, People, and Animals in Biology of ticks, Volume 1 (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-937927-9. OCLC   862106136.
  9. 1 2 Pienaar, Ronel; Neitz, Albert; Mans, Ben (2018-05-14). "Tick Paralysis: Solving an Enigma". Veterinary Sciences. 5 (2): 53. doi: 10.3390/vetsci5020053 . ISSN   2306-7381. PMC   6024606 . PMID   29757990.
  10. ↑ Wood, William F.; Leahy, Mary G..; Galun, R.; Prestwich, G. D.; Meinwald, J.; Purnell, R. E.; Payne, J. (1975). "Phenols as Sex Pheromones of Ixodid Ticks: A General Phenomen?". J. Chemical Ecology. 1: 501–509. doi:10.1007/BF00988590.
  11. ↑ Arnaudov, Atanas D.; Arnaudov, Dimo Y. (January 1, 2017). "Ixodid Ticks on Domestic Ruminants: an Investigation in the Valley of Maritsa River in Plovdiv Region, Bulgaria". Acta Zoologica Bulgarica (Suppl. 8): 223. ISSN   0324-0770. OCLC   7091676742.
  12. ↑ Apanaskevich, Dmitry A.; Horak, Ivan G.; Mulumba-Mfumu, Leopold K. (2013). "A New Species of Rhipicephalus (Acari: Ixodidae), a Parasite of Red River Hogs and Domestic Pigs in the Democratic Republic of Congo". Journal of Medical Entomology. 50 (3): 479–484. doi:10.1603/ME12266. hdl: 2263/40531 .
  13. ↑ Šlapeta, Jan; Chandra, Shona; Halliday, Bruce (2021). "The "tropical lineage" of the brown dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato identified as Rhipicephalus linnaei (Audouin, 1826)". International Journal for Parasitology. 51 (6): 431–436. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.02.001 .
  14. ↑ Kitaoka, Shigeo; Suzuki, Hiroshi (1983). "Studies on the Parasite Fauna of Thailand: 5. Parasitic ticks on mammals and description of Ixodes siamensis sp. n. and Rhipicephalus tetracornus sp. n. (Acarina: Ixodidae)". Tropical Medicine. 25 (4): 205–219. hdl: 10069/4366 .
  15. ↑ Guglielmone, Alberto A.; Robbins, Richard G.; Apanaskevich, Dmitry A.; Petney, Trevor N.; Estrada-Peña, Agustín; Horak, Ivan G. (2009). "Comments on controversial tick (Acari: Ixodida) species names and species described or resurrected from 2003 to 2008" (PDF). Experimental and Applied Acarology. 48 (4): 311–327. doi:10.1007/s10493-009-9246-2. hdl: 2263/13757 . PMID   19169832. S2CID   29053875.
  16. ↑ Murrell, Anna; Barker, Stephen C. (2003). "Synonymy of Boophilus Curtice, 1891 with Rhipicephalus Koch, 1844 (Acari: Ixodidae)". Systematic Parasitology. 56 (3): 169–172. doi:10.1023/B:SYPA.0000003802.36517.a0. PMID   14707501. S2CID   995415.

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