Amblyomma auricularium ( Conil, 1878 )

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 : 82-83

10. Amblyomma auricularium ( Conil, 1878) .

A Neotropical species with several records from the Nearctic Region. Adults of Amblyomma auricularium are usually found on Cingulata : Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae , while larvae and nymphs are also commonly recovered from these hosts as well as from Didelphimorphia : Didelphidae . Additionally, all parasitic stages have been found on Didelphidae , and Carnivora : Canidae , Felidae , Mephitidae and Procyonidae . Adults and nymphs have been collected from Artiodactyla : Bovidae and Suidae , Carnivora : Canidae , Pilosa : Myrmecophagidae , and Rodentia : Caviidae and Chinchillidae ; adult ticks alone have been found on Carnivora : Mustelidae , Perissodactyla : Equidae , and Squamata : Iguanidae ; and immature stages alone have been taken from Artiodactyla : Cervidae ; Rodentia : Cricetidae , Dasyproctidae and Echimyidae ; Accipitriformes : Accipitridae , and Passeriformes (several families) ( Guglielmone & Robbins 2018; Bermúdez et al. 2018, Barbieri et al. 2019). No bona fide records of Amblyomma auricularium feeding on humans were listed in Guglielmone and Robbins (2018), but recently Lopes et al. (2018) reported a case of human parasitism by a nymph in Natal City in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte.

M: Conil (1878), under the name Ixodes auricularius and given its current status in Lahille (1905, under the name Amblyomma auriculare ) and not in Aragão (1938), as stated in Guglielmone and Nava (2014), although Aragão (1938) used the correct name, Amblyomma auricularium

F: Conil (1878), under the name Ixodes auricularius

N: Martins et al. (2010)

L: Amorim and Serra-Freire (2000b)

Redescriptions

M: Boero (1957, under the name Amblyomma auriculare ), Onofrio et al. (2006b), Voltzit (2007), Guzmán-Cornejo et al. (2011), Nava et al. (2017), Bermúdez et al. (2018), Dantas-Torres et al. (2019b)

F: Hoffmann (1950, under the name Amblyomma curruca ), Boero (1957, under the name Amblyomma auriculare ), Onofrio et al. (2006b), Voltzit (2007), Guzmán-Cornejo et al. (2011), Nava et al. (2017), Bermúdez et al. (2018), Dantas-Torres et al. (2019b)

N: Martins et al. (2014), Nava et al. (2017)

L: none

Note: Lahille (1905) placed Ixodes auricularius in the genus Amblyomma , but this species was considered invalid by Nuttall and Warburton (1911) and Robinson (1926). The name Amblyomma auricularium was used by Aragão (1938) and by many subsequent workers down to the present with no apparent confusion concerning its diagnosis. Nevertheless, a reanalysis shows that Amblyomma auricularium is not easy to identify with certainty. The scutum of this species is recognized as inornate by most authors, but Onofrio et al. (2006b) and Dantas-Torres et al. (2019b) provide figures of the male and female of Amblyomma auricularium that highlight their ornamentation. Moreover, the morphological differences between Amblyomma auricularium and Amblyomma pseudoconcolor , another parasite of Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae , are minimal in the studies of Onofrio et al. (2006b) and Dantas-Torres et al. (2019b), providing unintentional support to Camicas et al. (1998), who listed Amblyomma pseudoconcolor as a synonym of Amblyomma auricularium . The descriptions of adults of Amblyomma auricularium in Floch and Abonnenc (1940 , as auriculare ) constitute misidentifications of Amblyomma coelebs , as explained in Floch and Fauran (1958). Guglielmone and Nava (2014) reported confusion between Amblyomma auricularium and Amblyomma pseudoconcolor , while Guzmán-Cornejo et al. (2011) found Amblyomma auricularium identified as Amblyomma parvum . Amblyomma curruca , described in Schulze (1936b), is usually treated as a synonym of Amblyomma auricularium , but Guglielmone et al. (2017) argue that reevaluation is needed to confirm the former taxon’s status, and the same may be said about Amblyomma concolor of Neumann (1899, another alleged synonym of Amblyomma auricularium ), because these synonymies are in fact uncertain, as no type material of Amblyomma auricularium exists for comparison. Therefore, the descriptions and redescriptions above are treated here as provisionally valid, but it is clear that careful reevaluation of Amblyomma auricularium and related species is needed. See also Amblyomma inornatum for its probable confusion with Amblyomma auricularium .