PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 105(2), 2003. pp. 502-505 Note First Report of Amhlyoinnia hitmerale Koch (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) from Bolivia, with a Synopsis of Collections of this Tick from the South American Yellow-footed Tortoise, Geochelone denticulata (L.) (Reptilia: Testudines: Testudinidae) Over most of the Neotropical Zoogeo-graphic Region, turtles and tortoises are commonly parasitized by a complex of three morphologically similar tick species whose biosystematic relationships to one another are unclear: Amblyomma sahanerae Stoll, which ranges from southern Mexico through Central America and perhaps into Colombia (Fairchild et al. 1966, Robbins et al. 2001); A. humerale Koch, which occurs on Trinidad and across the whole of north-ern South America southward through Bra-zil and westward into Peru (Floch and Faur-an 1958, Aitken et al. 1968, Walter 1990, Guerrero 1996, Verhaagh and Podloucky 1997); and the seldom-collected A. crassum Robinson, which appears to occupy a tran-sition zone between A. sahanerae and A. humerale, having been recorded from Co-lombia, Peru and Venezuela (Robinson 1926. Fiasson 1949. Fairchild et al. 1966, Jones et al. 1972). However, published de-scriptions of these species are often vague, leading Fairchild (1943) to speculate that all three may merely be varieties of one widespread polytypic species. Whatever their systematic standing, these ticks are ap-parently capable of feeding on any terres-trial or semiaquatic testudine. Thus, it is not surprising that A. humerale has previously been collected from the South American yellow-footed tortoise, Geochelone denti-culata (L.). the largest tortoise on the con-tinental mainland, with a range extending from Trinidad and southeastern Venezuela through the Caribbean lowlands of the Guianas to Brazil, where it is known from the entire Amazon Basin, including those portions in adjacent eastern Colombia and Ecuador, northeastern Peru, and northern and eastern Bolivia (Aragao and Fonseca 1961, Aitken et al. 1968, Ernst and Barbour 1989). On 6 February 2000, one of us (SLD) removed 1 1 male specimens of A. humerale (Fig. 1 ) from the axillae of a sin-gle G. denticulata (sex unrecorded; actual host animal shown in Fig. 2) captured in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado), in the northeastern corner of the Depart-ment of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We believe that these are the first specimens of A. hu-merale ever reported from Bolivia. Noel Kempff Mercado National Park is situated in lowlands between the Serrania de Huanchaca escarpment and the banks of the Rio Itenez (Guapore) and has been de-scribed elsewhere (Robbins and Deem 2002). Our specimen of G. denticulata was sighted alongside a trail running through seasonally inundated forest within the park (13.48.14S, 60.32.44W). The animal was approached on foot and manually restrained for physical examination. All tick speci-mens were preserved in 70% isopropanol and shipped to RGR for identification and analysis. The Field Veterinary Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, has assigned acces-sion number GCDl and MEDARKS (Med-ical Archives) number 2002-0004 to the Noel Kempff Mercado collection of A. hu-merale, which is on long-term loan to RGR. Seven additional collections of A. humerale from G. denticulata are in the U.S. National Tick Collection, Georgia Southern Univer-sity, Statesboro (Table 1). It seems likely that the range of A. humerale will eventu-ally prove to be almost coextensive with that of G. denticulata, since both tick and
First report of Amblyomma humerale Koch (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) from Bolivia, with a synopsis of collections of this tick from the South American yellow-footed tortoise, Geochelone denticulata (L.) (Reptilia: Testudines: Testudinidae)
BioStor
