Ixodes fuscipes 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 : 17-18

90. Ixodes fuscipes Koch, 1844a .

Neotropical: 1) Brazil, 2) Uruguay ( Labruna et al. 2020 b, Guglielmone et al. 2021).

Information concerning Ixodes fuscipes in Guglielmone et al. (2014) and other papers should be considered invalid because current research results indicate that most such data are erroneous. For more than a century Ixodes spinosus , a tick described but not figured by Neumann (1899) , has been treated as a synonym of Ixodes fuscipes . The first figures of alleged Ixodes fuscipes were provided by Nuttall & Warburton (1911), using a female in the syntype series of Ixodes spinosus , but Labruna et al. (2020b) reexamined the type specimens of these ticks, finding that they represented different species, and reinstated Ixodes spinosus as a valid name. Additionally, Labruna et al. (2020b) compared the type of Ixodes fuscipes with females in the syntype series of Ixodes aragaoi , finding that these specimens are morphologically indistinguishable. Consequently, Labruna et al. (2020b) relegated Ixodes aragaoi to the synonymy of Ixodes fuscipes .

Ixodes fuscipes is close to Ixodes affinis and Ixodes pararicinus . Some authors have treated Ixodes fuscipes as a synonym of Ixodes affinis , but this is unjustified, as shown in the studies of Onofrio et al. (2014, using the name Ixodes aragaoi ) and Saracho-Bottero et al. (2020). Ixodes fuscipes has also been partially confused with alleged Ixodes pararicinus from Uruguay, but Ixodes pararicinus is now known to be geographically limited to northwestern Argentina ( Nava et al. 2017) , and Uruguayan records are considered to represent Ixodes fuscipes .

Carvajal & Castellanos (2021) reported the presence of Ixodes fuscipes in Ecuador, but the accompanying illustration is not of this species.