Status and Descriptions of Haemaphysalis p. papuana Thorell (n. comb.) and of H. papuana kinneari Warburton (n. comb.) (Ixodoidea, Ixodidae) of Southern Asia and New Guinea

Abstract

This study was undertaken in order to determine the correct name and relationships of tick populations previously referred to as Haemaphysalis papuana in epidemiological studies on Kyasanur Forest disease in Mysore State, India, and to establish a comparative baseline for delineating several closely related, undescribed Asiatic species. The male and female of H. papuana papuana Thorell, 1883, n. comb., are redescribed, and the nymph is described for the first time. Type material in the Genoa museum was studied, as well as other samples from New Guinea and nearby islands, Java, Sumatra, Sarawak, Malaya, Thailand, and the Philippines. Wild pigs are the chief hosts of adults. The closely related H. papuana kinneari Warburton, 1913, n. comb., of southern India was previously known by only a single female which was also examined for this study. All stages of the subspecies kinneari are described from samples from Mysore State, India. These taxa comprise a separate complex related to the H. bispinosa group. The adults have compact palpi with a dorsobasal spur or plate on segment 3 while the immature stages have basolaterally salient palpi. Haemaphysalis papuana Thorell, 1883, was described and figured from a male and a female specimen from New Guinea. Several authors have applied this name to various ticks from southeastern Asia and the East Indies. This species was not considered by Warburton (1913) in his description of H. kinneari based Received for publication 11 October 1963. *From Research Project MR005.1402.3, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department, Washington 25, D. C. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large. t Entire costs of printing this paper have been paid by the Rockefeller Foundation. t Staff Member, the Rockefeller Foundation, Virus Research Centre, Poona, India. The Virus Research Centre is jointly maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Rockefeller Foundation. ? Department of Medical Zoology, United States Naval Medical Research Unit Number Three, Cairo, Egypt, UAR. 1I Department of Entomology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Formerly at Virus Research Centre, Poona, India. on a single female specimen from an Indian