Redescription of the Type Material of Haemaphysalis (Aboimisalis) cinnabarina (Revalidated) and Its Junior Synonym H. (A.) sanguinolenta Described by Koch in 1844 from Brazil (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae)

Abstract

Since Koch briefly described Haemaphysalis cinnabarina from Brazil in 1844, this taxon has been used in various ways in hundreds of publications dealing with the Palearctic and Nearctic tick faunas but has gradually been abandoned, without definitive study, in favor of taxons later described from samples from Europe and North America. Study of the female holotype of H. cinnabarina, which is in excellent condition, indicates with reasonable certainty that H. cinnabarina is a valid taxon. The female holotype of H. sanguinolenta, also described by Koch from Brazil in 1844, represents the same species; the taxon sanguinolenta is a junior synonym of cinnabarina. H. cinnabarina is compared with other members of the subgenus Aboimisalis Santos Dias: punctata Canestrini and Fanzago of Europe and southwestern Asia, chordeilis (Packard) of USA and Canada, and cornupunctata Hoogstraal and Varma of the Himalayas. H. cinnabarina should be searched for in South America. The taxon Haemaphysalis cinnabarina Koch (1844, 1847) has been used in hundreds of publications for over a century, often alone or as H. punctata cinnabarina Koch, or as the prior taxon for H. chordeilis (Packard, 1869). Nuttall and Warburton (1915) reviewed this taxon, and like Neumann, D6nitz, and other earlier workers, whose literature they list, concluded that H. punctata Canestrini and Fanzago (1878) and H. chordeilis were junior synonyms of H. cinnabarina. They also concluded that H. sanguinolenta Koch (1844, 1847) is a junior synonym of H. cinnabarina. The source of both Koch taxons was Brazil. In the 1930's, some European and all Soviet workers abandoned cinnabarina in favor of punctata for the Palearctic fauna, apparently only because of the Neotropical origin of the former taxon. Following Hooker et al. (1912) and Cooley (1946), North American workers have considered chordeilis of USA and Canada as a valid taxon; they did not examine the Received for publication 5 January 1973. *From Research Project MF12.524.009-3010B, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Department of the Navy, Washington, D. C. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones of the author 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 03-005-1 between NIAID (NIH) and NAMRU-3. type material of cinnabarina and apparently also based this decision on geographical grounds. Thus, for at least a quarter of a century the taxon cinnabarina quietly has been put aside without definitive study and knowledge of its precise characters. No workers dealing with the Neotropical fauna have reported additional specimens attributable to cinnabarina. However, the tick fauna of South America remains so poorly investigated that lack of later reports of cinnabarina, rather than suggesting the absence of this species, is expected. Fortunately, the holotypes of both Koch taxons are present in the Zoologisches Museum, Berlin, East Germany. The holotype of H. cinnabarina is in excellent condition except that legs IV lack the terminal segments and the external genital area, which was removed by some earlier worker, is unavailable for comparative study. Precise characters are easily discerned in this large, flat, unfed specimen. The holotype of H. sanguinolenta is a very large, greatly engorged specimen requiring much manual manipulation for examining critical characters such as setae and denticles. We illustrated (Figs. 1-16) and studied these holotypes a number of years ago and ever since, while examining numerous Haemaphysalis samples from around the world, we have been alert for specimens conforming to the characters of the two Koch holotypes. During