72. Ixodes diversifossus Neumann, 1899 .

Nearctic: 1) USA (Keirans & Clifford 1978, Guglielmone et al. 2020).

Ixodes diversifossus is known from two female ticks collected in the USA, but this species has often been confused with Ixodes dentatus and Ixodes spinipalpis (Keirans & Clifford 1978) . These authors also stated that Ixodes diversifossus and Ixodes boliviensis (Neotropical) are very close morphologically, leading Camicas et al. (1998) to synonymize the two names, with Ixodes diversifossus treated as both a Nearctic and Neotropical tick. However, Guglielmone et al. (2020) stated that type comparisons are needed to support the synonymy proposed by Camicas et al. (1998), a view endorsed here. Therefore, Ixodes diversifossus is provisionally considered to be a Nearctic species. See Ixodes spinipalpis for additional discussion of its confusion with Ixodes diversifossus .