The subgenus Persicargas (Ixodoidea, Argus). 8. A. (P.) theilerae, new species, a parasite of the white-backed vulture in South Africa.

Abstract

Argas (Persicargas) theilerae , n. sp., is described from laboratory-reared adults, nymphs, and larvae, and from adults and a nymph collected from under the bark of a camelthorn tree, Acacia giraffae Burch, in which a pair of white-backed vultures Gyps africanus Salvadori, was nesting near Kimberley, Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. The white-backed vulture is a common resident of tropical savannah bush country from South Africa to Ethiopia and Senega. A. (P.) theilerae is an African representative of a widely distributed vulture parasitizing group of species within the subgenus Persicaryas . The larval dorsal plate of each of these species is characterized by a concentric arrangement of the mosaic pattern in the anterolateral corners, a feature which is absent in known Persicargas infesting domestic chickens, or wild doves, storks, herons, and smaller size birds in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and Australia. This pattern is also present in 2 of the 4 endemic Persicargas species known from the Americas, where few tick collections have been recorded from vulture nests.