Identity of Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) muhsamae Santos Dias, 1954 (Acari: Ixodidae) and H. (R.) subterra Hoogstraal, El Kammah & Camicas, 1992, parasites of carnivores and rodents in eastern and southern Africa.

ABSTRACT

Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) muhsamae Santos Dias, 1954 (Acari Ixodidae) and H. (R.) subterra Hoogstraal, El Kammah & Camicas, 1992, are redescribed based on males and females. Adults of H. muhsamae were mostly collected from various mongooses (Carnivora Herpestidae) but also from the striped polecat, Ictonyx striatus (Perry) (Carnivora Mustelidae), serval, Leptailurus serval (Schreber) (Carnivora Felidae), red veld rat, Aethomys chrysophilus (de Winton) and Selinda veld rat, Aethomys silindensis Roberts (Rodentia Muridae) in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Adults of H. subterra were mostly found on various species of African mole rats, Tachyoryctes spp. (Rodentia Spalacidae) but also on striped polecat, I. striatus and slender mongoose, Galerella sanguinea (Rüppell) (Carnivora Herpestidae) in Ethiopia and Kenya. Males and females of both species can be differentiated from each other and other H. spinulosa-like ticks by their size, pattern of punctations on conscutum/scutum, shape of genital structures, shape and size of posterodorsal and posteroventral spurs on palpal segment II, hypostome dentition, and shape and size of spurs on coxae. Taxonomic issues of both species and those related to the identity of H. (R.) spinulosa Neumann, 1906 are discussed and a neotype of H. muhsamae has been designated.