Margaropus
Genus of ticks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Margaropus is a genus of ticks.[2] Found in Africa, the genus is known best from Giraffidae.
| 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 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]
Species
The genus currently includes three species:[6]
- Margaropus reidi Hoogstraal 1956 - the Sudanese beady-legged tick[7]
- Margaropus wileyi Walker & Laurence 1973 - the East African giraffe tick[8]
- Margaropus winthemi Karsch 1879 - the South African winter horse tick or beady-legged tick[2] [a]
Notes
- The species name memorialises naturalist and entomologist Wilhelm von Winthem.
See also
