Amblyomma lepidum D ö nitz, 1909

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 : 52

68. Amblyomma lepidum D ö nitz, 1909 .

Afrotropical: 1) Central African Republic, 2) Chad (south), 3) Eritrea, 4) Ethiopia, 5) Kenya, 6) Malawi, 7) Somalia, 8) South Sudan, 9) Sudan, 10) Tanzania, 11) Uganda, 12) Zambia; Palearctic: undefined whether there are established populations in Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel or Syria ( Theiler 1962, K ö hler et al. 1967, Yeoman & Walker 1967, Colbo 1973, Walker 1974, Pegram 1976, Jongejan et al. 1987, Matthysse & Colbo 1987, Walker & Olwage 1987, Saliba et al. 1990, Tandon 1991, Yeruham et al. 1996, Morel 2003, Voltzit & Keirans 2003, Adham et al. 2009, Kolonin 2009, Burridge 2011, ElGhali & Hassan 2012, Uilenberg et al. 2013, Olivieri et al. 2021).

Yeoman & Walker (1967) stated that morphological separation of the female of Amblyomma lepidum from that of Amblyomma variegatum is difficult, casting doubt on the identification of specimens of these species in several published studies.

Uilenberg et al. (2013) stated that it is uncertain whether natural populations of Amblyomma lepidum are established in the Central African Republic, and its presence in that country is treated here as provisional. Colbo (1973) and Tandon (1991) listed this tick as found in Zambia, a country that is also provisionally included within the geographical distribution of Amblyomma lepidum .

There are also records of this species from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ( Perveen et al. 2021), but it is unknown whether Amblyomma lepidum is established in those countries, while Horton et al. (2016) collected Amblyomma lepidum from imported cattle in Djibouti. All three of these countries are provisionally excluded from the range of this tick.

Camicas et al. (1998) and Guglielmone et al. (2014) treat Amblyomma lepidum as an Afrotropical and Palearctic species, and Guglielmone et al. (2020) catalogued this tick as chiefly Afrotropical, with Palearctic records from Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Palestine and Syria. Records of Amblyomma lepidum in such geographically close countries appear to indicate the presence of natural populations of this tick in the area. Voltzit & Keirans (2003) suggested that Amblyomma lepidum is established in Cyprus, Israel and Syria, and Kolonin (2009) supported this view. However, Tsatsaris et al. (2016) conducted a three-year survey of ticks on Cyprus, and no Amblyomma lepidum were reported. In Israel, Amblyomma lepidum has been found in different parts of the country, but always in low numbers, and we are unaware of frequent reports of this tick from Iraq and Syria. Adham et al. (2009) collected more than one hundred Amblyomma lepidum from cattle during a two-year study in Egypt, Giza Governorate, while Hassan et al. (2017) recovered ticks in an Egyptian camel market and found Amblyomma lepidum during eight of the 12 months of their study, although they were unable to specify the origin of the infested camels, the market having sold both local and imported animals, mainly from Sudan and Somalia. We postulate that Amblyomma lepidum is established in this portion of the Palearctic Region, probably including Egypt, although Okely et al. (2021, 2022) state that this tick is not endemic there. Additional research is needed to determine the distribution of Amblyomma lepidum in the Palearctic, where this species is provisionally thought to occur.