Haemaphysalis (Kaiseriana) yeni Toumanoff (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae): Discovery in Japan, Description of Female and Immature Stages, Environment, and Life Cycle

Abstract

Haemaphysalis (Kaiseriana) yeni Toumanoff, previously known only from 2 male specimens from a sambar deer in the Haut Chlong area of the Republic of Vietnam, is here recorded from Hanoi, and from numerous field-collected and laboratory-reared species from Yaku Shima, a small island south of Kyushu. We redescribe the male and describe the female, nymph, and larva. H. (K.) yeni is now recognized as a normal, albeit boldly characterized member of the H. (K.) bispinosa group, composed of the structurally conservative bispinosa subgroup (bispinosa and ramachandrai) in the Indian Subregion, the larger-spurred lagrangei subgroup (davisi, lagrangei, longicornis, yeni, renschi, luzonensis) from northeastern India to Japan, Philippines, and Indonesia, and the exceptionally heavily spurred aculeata subgroup of southern India, Ceylon, and Borneo (aculeata, cuspidata, borneata). Adults and nymphs of H. (K.) yeni were collected from hunting dogs that run through the forests and these stages and larvae were swept from forest vegetation from near sea level to ca. 3,000 ft altitude. Yaku Shima is a mountainous, densely vegetated subtropical island with a specialized fauna distinct from more northerly islands in the Japanese Archipelago. Haemaphysalis (Kaiseriana) yeni Toumanoff (1944) was previously known only from two male specimens, one designated as the lectotype of this taxon, from a sambar deer, Cervus unicolor equinus Cuvier, from the Haut Chlong area of the Republic of Vienam (Hoogstraal and Trapido, 1966). Discovery of a population of H. (K.) yeni on Yaku Shima, a small island immediately south of Kyushu, Japan, and laboratory rearing, have provided material for a redescription of the male and description of the female, nymph, and larva. The presence of H. (K.) yeni on this island and in Southeast Asia suggests that this species has survived here since the period of a land bridge between Japan and continental Asia. Yaku and nearby small islands are considered to form a separate biogeographical zone in the Received for publication 31 March 1972. * From Research Project MF12.524.009-3010, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Department of the Navy, Washington, D. C. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Navy or of the naval service at large. The illustrations in this report were prepared under the auspices of Agreement 03-005-01 between the NIAID (NIH) and NAMRU-3. t Medical Zoology Department, Niigata University School of Medicine, Niigata City, Japan. t Medical Zoology Department, U. S. Naval MediCal Research Unit Number Three (NAMRU-3), c/o Spanish Embassy, Cairo, Egypt. Japanese Archipelago (Sakaguti, 1962). In the recent monograph on ticks of Japan, 13 other Haemaphysalis species are listed and another is carried into Japan on migrating birds (Yamaguti et al., 1971). In the bispined H. (K.) bispinosa group (Hoogstraal, Dhanda, and Bhat, 1970) of the Oriental and eastern Palearctic Region, yeni can now be recognized as a member of the large-spurred lagrangei subgroup (davisi, lagrangei, longicornis, yeni, renschi, luzonensis). The lagrangei subgroup stems from the structurally conservative bispinosa subgroup (bispinosa, ramachandrai) of the Indian Subregion and has exceptionally heavily spurred relatives in the aculeata subgroup (aculeata, cuspidata, borneata) of southern India, Ceylon, and Borneo. Sambar and other deer appear to be the chief hosts of these forest-dwelling ticks. Other artiodactyl mammals and carnivores are also infested. Except for bispinosa, adults of these 11 species are rarely recorded from domestic animals. Haemaphysalis (Kaiseriana) yeni Toumanoff Yen's haemaphysalid