Haemaphysalis spinulosa Neumann, 1906

Guglielmone, Alberto A., Petney, Trevor N. & Robbins, Richard G., 2020, Ixodidae (Acari: Ixodoidea): descriptions and redescriptions of all known species from 1758 to December 31, 2019, Zootaxa 4871 (1), pp. 1-322 : 193-194

150. Haemaphysalis spinulosa Neumann, 1906 .

An Afrotropical species whose adults are usually found on Carnivora (several families), but they have also been collected from Mammalia (several orders). See note below for a discussion of the difficulties involved in identifying this species. There are no records of Haemaphysalis spinulosa causing human parasitism.

M: Santos Dias (1958d), under the name Haemaphysalis ethiopica , a synonym of Haemaphysalis spinulosa

F: Neumann (1906)

N: Santos Dias (1954b), under the name Haemaphysalis muhsami (lapsus for muhsamae ), as explained in Santos Dias (1958d), who named this species Haemaphysalis ethiopica ; see also note below

L: unknown; see note below

Redescriptions

M: Hoogstraal (1964b)

F: Nuttall and Warburton (1915), Hoogstraal (1964b)

N: none

Note: Haemaphysalis spinulosa is a species that needs revision, along with related taxa. Horak et al. (2018) explained that Hoogstraal (1964b) and Hussein and Mustafa (1983) described adults of different species under the name Haemaphysalis spinulosa , and Hoogstraal inadvertently supported the erroneous name usage in Hussein and Mustafa (1983); conversely, the larva and nymph described by the latter authors do not belong to this species. The study of Hussein and Mustafa (1983) and the redescription of Haemaphysalis spinulosa in Matthysse and Colbo (1987) , based on Hussein and Mustafa (1983), are therefore not included in the above lists. Guglielmone et al. (2014) state that all parasitic stages of Haemaphysalis spinulosa have been described, but there is no convincing description of the larva. Horak et al. (2018) named specimens found in southern Africa that probably belong to this species Haemaphysalis spinulosa- like. These authors also explained that there are five species of the Haemaphysalis leachi group in southern Africa, namely: Haemaphysalis colesbergensis , Haemaphysalis elliptica , Haemaphysalis pedetes , Haemaphysalis zumpti and Haemaphysalis spinulosa called spinulosa- like, adding that morphological differentiation of adults of these species is difficult, and extremely arduous for larvae and nymphs. Tomlinson et al. (2018) state that Haemaphysalis spinulosa can only be recognized from the type female described in Hoogstraal (1964b). Additionally, Tomlinson et al. (2018) studied tick samples identified as Haemaphysalis spinulosa in museum collections but were unable to find valid specimens of this taxon, concluding that misidentified and undescribed species are included under the name Haemaphysalis spinulosa . Four of these previously unidentified species have been described by Apanaskevich and Tomlinson (2019). Given this uncertain situation, all the descriptions and redescriptions above should be considered provisionally valid, and elucidation of the systematic status of Haemaphysalis spinulosa will require additional research, including mobilization of molecular methods. See also Haemaphysalis muhsamae .