Amblyomma exornatum Koch, 1844a

Guglielmone, Alberto A., Nava, Santiago & Robbins, Richard G., 2023, Geographic distribution of the hard ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) of the world by countries and territories, Zootaxa 5251 (1), pp. 1-274 : 45

37. Amblyomma exornatum Koch, 1844a .

Afrotropical: 1) Angola, 2) Botswana, 3) Burundi, 4) Democratic Republic of the Congo, 5) Eritrea, 6) Ethiopia, 7) Kenya, 8) Malawi, 9) Mozambique, 10) Namibia, 11) Rwanda, 12) Somalia, 13) South Africa, 14) South Sudan, 15) Sudan, 16) Tanzania, 17) Uganda, 18) Zambia, 19) Zimbabwe ( Hoogstraal 1956 a, Yeoman & Walker 1967, Matthysse & Colbo 1987, Tandon 1991, Santos Dias 1993b, Morel 2003, Horak et al. 2018).

Most records of Amblyomma exornatum have been published under the name Aponomma exornatum , whose geographic distribution is here largely based on Santos Dias (1993b), who regarded Amblyomma exornatum , Amblyomma arcanum and Amblyomma flavomaculatum as different species that are difficult to separate morphologically (see also Amblyomma arcanum ). Burridge (2011) recognized Amblyomma arcanum and Amblyomma exornatum as valid, but his geographic distribution of Amblyomma exornatum appears to include countries where only Amblyomma arcanum has been found. Clearly, the difficulties involved in identifying these species call for caution when interpreting range data. Ali et al. (2019) recorded Amblyomma exornatum from Pakistan, but Abid Ali, in personal communication to Alberto A. Guglielmone, stated that the ticks had been imported from Africa.