Haemaphysalis (Herpetobia) sundrai Sharif (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae), a Tick Parasitizing Sheep in the Western Himalayas, Redescription of Female, Description of Male, and Ecological Observations

Abstract

The female of Haemaphysalis (Herpetobia) sundrai Sharif, 1928, was inadequately described and sketched. Adults of this species have now been found on domestic sheep near the type locality in the Himalayas of Uttar Pradesh, India. The male is described and the female is redescribed. Adults are compared with those of H. sulcata Canestrini and Fanzago, H. kashmirensis Hoogstraal and Varma, and H. nepalensis Hoogstraal. The collection localities, 3,400 and 6,000 ft altitude, are in a temperate area with monsoon rains averaging 60 to 65 inches annually and surrounded chiefly by pine or scrub forest with oak forest in ravines and recently by extensive fruit orchards. Haemaphysalis (Herpetobia) sundrai Sharif (1928) was inadequately described and sketched from three syntype females from Bhowali, 6,000 ft altitude, Naini Tal District, Uttar Pradesh, India. Until recently, no other samples of this taxon have been found and relatively few structural details could be included in an earlier redescription of the single syntype specimen remaining in the Indian Museum (Hoogstraal and Varma, 1962). We are now fortunate to have obtained two males and females of this species from Uttarkashi, 3,400 ft altitude, Uttarkashi District, Uttar Pradesh, and describe the male and redescribe the female. Haemaphysalis (Herpetobia) sundrai Sharif, 1928 Sundra's Indian mountain haemaphysalid