Review of Haemaphysalis (Kaiseriana) longicornis Neumann (Resurrected) of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Fiji, Japan, Korea, and Northeastern China and USSR, and Its Parthenogenetic and Bisexual Populations (Ixodoidea, Ixodidae)

Abstract

The name Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann, 1901, originally described from Australia, is resurrected for a distinctive taxon in the subgenus Kaiseriana, and the adult and immature stages are redescribed. This species has consistently been referred to in literature as H. bispinosa Neumann, 1897, a tropical Asian species from which it is easily distinguished structurally and biologically and which does not occur in Australia or New Zealand or in other areas where longicornis is reported. H. (K.) longi­ cornis appears to have been imported into Australia from northern Japan in the nineteenth century and thence to New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Fiji. (A living female longicornis shipped to Hawaii from Australia on a sheep dog destined for Texas is recorded.) Reproduction of longicornis is partheno genetic in all these areas, as well as in most of Primorye (northeastern USSR) and in Hokkaido and north­ ern Honshu Islands of Japan. Strains of the bisexual population from southern Honshu and Kyushu Islands of Japan, and from Korea and the extreme south of Primorye, tentatively attributed to this taxon, differ only in that some are slightly smaller in average size. Apparently parthenogenetic and bisexual populations occur in northeastern China. The taxon H. neumanni Donitz, 1905, is a synonym of H. (K.) longicornis. As shown elsewhere by Oliver and Bremner, longicornis represents the only known ex­ ample of triploidy in ticks; chromosomes number 32 or 33 in the obligately parthenogenetic female and 31 in the reproductively nonfunctional male. This species is a vector of Coxiella burneti (Q fever) and is capable of transmitting Theileria sergenti, T. mutans, and the virus causing Russian spring-summer encephalitis. It is also a serious pest of cattle, horses, and deer. Life cycle data for laboratory reared material of H. (K.) longicornis from Japan are presented. In an Addendum, a female specimen from Tonga, Friendly Islands, is recorded.