Ixodes hexagonus Leach, 1815

Ixodes hexagonus Leach, 1815: 397; Morel and Pérez 1973: 275.

Ixodes autumnalis Leach: Neumann 1911: 17.

Ixodes erinacei Audouin: Neumann 1911: 17.

Ixodes auricularis Robineau-Desvoidy: Morel and Pérez 1973: 275.

Ixodes sexpunctatus Koch: Neumann 1911: 17.

Ixodes vulpis Pagenstecher: Neumann 1911: 17.

Ixodes erinaceus Audouin: Neumann 1911: 17.

Recorded hosts.

Mammalia: Bos taurus Linnaeus (cattle), Canis familiaris (domestic dog), Erinaceus europaeus (European hedgehog), Felis catus (domestic cat), Lutra lutra (Linnaeus) (Eurasian otter), Meles meles (Eurasian badger), Mustela erminea (stoat), Mustela nivalis (least weasel), Mustela putorius Linnaeus (European polecat), Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus) (European rabbit), Ovis aries (sheep), Rattus norvegicus (brown rat), Vulpes vulpes (red fox) (Filippova 1977).

Aves: Turdus merula (common blackbird) (Filippova 1977).

Recorded locations

(Fig. 25). Ukraine: outskirts of Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi Oblast (Levytska et al. 2021), the North-Western seacoast of the Black Sea (Rusev 2009), Zakarpattia Oblast (the rural locality Malyi Berezny) (Filippova 1961).

Ecology and other information.

Ixodes hexagonus is a typical nidicolous parasite of carnivores and hedgehogs. It has certain morphological similarities to I. crenulatus and I. kaiseri and has common sympatric zones with this species along its range (Filippova 1999). Ukraine is the only country of the former Soviet Union, on the territory of which this European species is present in the tick fauna (Filippova 1977). In general I. hexagonus was detected quite rarely in Ukraine, and almost always in the west of Ukraine and mainly from hedgehogs (Kolonin 2009). Akimov and Nebogatkin (2016) assumed that it can be found in the vicinity of Kyiv, and eventually it was confirmed by Levytska et al. (2021). Rare occasional human bites have been recorded (Rosický and Weiser 1952; Arthur 1963; Bursali et al. 2012).