Genus Haemaphysalis

Haemaphysalis ticks are distributed throughout the north and west mountainous regions of KP, Balochistan, and some parts of Punjab and Sindh. Previous studies have yielded a total of 12 haemaphysaline ticks reported from both wild and domestic animals in Pakistan: Haemaphysalis bispinosa Neumann, 1897, Haemaphysalis canestrinii (Supino, 1897), Haemaphysalis cornupunctata Hoogstraal and Varma, 1962, Haemaphysalis danieli Černý and Hoogstraal, 1977, Haemaphysalis erinacei Pavesi, 1884, Haemaphysalis howletti Warburton, 1913, Haemaphysalis indica Warburton, 1910, Haemaphysalis intermedia Warburton and Nuttall, 1909, Haemaphysalis kashmirensis Hoogstraal and Varma, 1962, Haemaphysalis kutchensis Hoogstraal and Trapido, 1963, Haemaphysalis montgomeryi Nuttall, 1912, and Haemaphysalis sulcata Canestrini and Fanzago, 1878 (Fig. 16) (Hoogstraal & Varma 1962; Dhanda 1964; Hoogstraal & McCarthy 1965a; Hoogstraal et al. 1966; McCarthy 1967; Hoogstraal 1970, 1971; Begum et al. 1970b; Robertson et al. 1970; Černý & Hoogstraal 1977; Karim et al. 2017; Ali et al. 2019, 2023; Kamran et al. 2021; Khan Z et al. 2022; Alam et al. 2022; Hussain et al. 2023; Khan M et al. 2023). Both literature and the results of the present study indicate that haemaphysaline ticks chiefly infest small ruminants in Pakistan, while Kamran et al. (2021) rarely collected Ha. bispinosa from equine hosts in Balochistan. The present study revealed the presence of seven Haemaphysalis species: Ha. bispinosa, Ha. cornupunctata, Ha. danieli, Ha. indica, Ha. kashmirensis, Ha. montgomeryi, and Ha. sulcata .