Amblyomma variegatum ( Fabricius, 1798 )

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 : 66

132. Amblyomma variegatum ( Fabricius, 1798) .

Afrotropical: 1) Angola, 2) Benin, 3) Botswana, 4) Burkina Faso, 5) Burundi, 6) Cameroon, 7) Cape Verde, 8) Central African Republic, 9) Chad (south), 10) Comoros, 11) Congo, 12) Democratic Republic of the Congo, 13) Djibouti, 14) Equatorial Guinea, 15) Eritrea, 16) Ethiopia, 17) Gabon, 18) Gambia, 19) Ghana, 20) Guinea, 21) Guinea-Bissau, 22) Ivory Coast, 23) Kenya, 24) Liberia, 25) Madagascar, 26) Malawi, 27) Mali (south), 28) Mauritania (south), 29) Mauritius, 30) Mayotte, 31) Mozambique, 32) Namibia, 33) Niger (south), 34) Nigeria, 35) Oman, 36) Réunion, 37) Rwanda, 38) S ã o Tomé and Príncipe, 39) Saudi Arabia (south), 40) Senegal, 41) Sierra Leone, 42) Somalia, 43) South Sudan, 44) Sudan, 45) Tanzania, 46) Togo, 47) Uganda, 48) Yemen, 49) Zambia, 50) Zimbabwe; Neotropical: 1) Anguilla, 2) Antigua and Barbuda, 3) Barbados, 4) Dominica, 5) Guadeloupe, 6) Martinique, 7) Montserrat, 8) Puerto Rico, 9) Saba, 10) Saint Eustatius, 11) Saint Kitts and Nevis, 12) Saint Lucia, 13) Saint Martin, 14) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 15) USA Virgin Islands ( Neumann 1911 a , Barré & Morel 1983, Keirans 1985 b, Jongejan et al. 1987, Walker & Olwage 1987, Tandon 1991, Barré et al. 1995, Idris et al. 2000, Morel 2003, Lynen et al. 2007, Kelly et al. 2010, Burridge 2011, Pourrut et al. 2011, ElGhali & Hassan 2012, Mediannikov et al. 2012 a, Stachurski et al. 2013, Uilenberg et al. 2013, Diarra et al. 2017, Horak et al. 2018, Abdally et al. 2020, Hsi et al. 2020, Guglielmone et al. 2021, Shekede et al. 2021, Olivieri et al. 2021).

Yeoman & Walker (1967) stated that “typical” specimens of Amblyomma variegatum can be diagnosed with the naked eye, but thereafter they noted great variation in scutal color and punctations among specimens of this tick. Additionally, Yeoman & Walker (1967) encountered difficulties in morphologically separating females of Amblyomma variegatum from those of Amblyomma gemma and Amblyomma lepidum , casting doubt on some diagnoses of Amblyomma variegatum .

The exotic Neotropical range of Amblyomma variegatum , introduced from Africa to the Caribbean, is historical because some islands named here are now probably free of this tick following extensive eradication campaigns. Over time, several authors have listed Amblyomma variegatum from a number of Neotropical countries and territories ( Colombia, French Guiana, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom Virgin Islands and Venezuela), but without confirmation (Uilenberg et al. 1984, Guglielmone et al. 2021), and all these countries and territories are excluded from the range of this tick. Additionally, there have been numerous confirmed and unconfirmed records of Amblyomma variegatum outside the Afrotropical and Neotropical Zoogeographic Regions, but solid evidence of permanent populations is lacking.