Amblyomma trimaculatum ( Lucas, 1878 )

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 : 65

127. Amblyomma trimaculatum ( Lucas, 1878) .

Australasian: 1) Australia, 2) Indonesia (east of Wallace’s Line), 3) Papua New Guinea, 4) Solomon Islands; Oriental: 1) Indonesia (west of Wallace’s Line), 2) Philippines, 3) Sri Lanka, 4) Thailand ( Warburton, 1925, Anastos 1950, Roberts 1970, Keirans 1985b, Durden et al. 2008, Burridge 2011, Owen 2011, Liyanaarachchi et al. 2015b, Petney et al. 2019).

Most records of Amblyomma trimaculatum have been published under the name Aponomma trimaculatum . The morphological definition of this species is somewhat unclear ( Wilson 1969, Kolonin 2009, Guglielmone et al. 2020), and morphological identification of Amblyomma trimaculatum is therefore difficult. As a result, the geographic distribution of Amblyomma trimaculatum should be considered cautiously.

Camicas et al. (1998) regarded Amblyomma trimaculatum (under the former genus Aponomma ) as an Australasian species, but Guglielmone et al. (2014) also accepted as valid records from the Oriental Region. Anastos (1950) doubted records of this tick from Australia and Sri Lanka, but the presence of Amblyomma trimaculatum in those countries is supported by records published after 1950. Nevertheless, morphological and molecular comparisons of specimens from different populations of Amblyomma trimaculatum might be expected to shed light on the systematics of this species.