Family ARGASIDAE Koch, 1844

Museums

Regional Maps

• Argasiden Koch, C.L. 1844. Systematische Übersicht über die Ordnung der Zecken. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 10: 217-239 [original spelling].

Introduction

The arrangement of species and genera of Argasidae used here is derived from Barker et al. (2014). The Australian fauna of Argasidae consists of ten species of Argas, three species of Ornithodoros, and one species of Otobius. Most species are parasites of wild and domesticated birds, except for Ornithodoros gurneyi, which is usually found on kangaroos and in their resting sites, and Otobius megnini, which occurs in the ears of horses. Barker & Walker (2014) provided a detailed review of the species that infest domestic animals and humans. Barker et al. (2014) listed the 70 species of ticks that occur Australia and summarised their host relationships.

Incompletely identified species of Argasidae have been recorded by Hamilton-Smith (1967) (unidentified Argasidae), Richards (1971) (unidentfied species of Argas and Ornithodoros (Pavlovskyella)), Lee & Southcott (1979) (Argas nr. persicus) and Lowry (1980) (four unidentified species of Ornithodoros).

General References

Barker, S.C., Walker, A.R. & Campelo, D. 2014. A list of the 70 species of Australian ticks; diagnostic guides to and species accounts of Ixodes holocyclus (paralysis tick), Ixodes cornuatus (southern paralysis tick) and Rhipicephalus australis (Australian cattle tick); and consideration of the place of Australia in the evolution of ticks with comments on four controversial ideas. International Journal for Parasitology 44: 941-953.

Barker, S.C. & Walker, A.R. 2014. Ticks of Australia. The species that infest domestic animals and humans. Zootaxa 3816: 1-144.

Hamilton-Smith, E. 1967. The Arthropoda of Australian caves. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 6: 103-118

Klompen, J.S.H. & Oliver, J.H. 1993. Systematic relationships in the soft ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Argasidae). Systematic Entomology 18: 313-331

Lee, D.C. & Southcott, R.V. 1979. Spiders and other Arachnids of South Australia. pp. 29-43 in Leonard, B.E. (ed.). South Australian Year Book No. 14. Adelaide : Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Lowry, J.W.J. 1980. Ecological Relationships of Western Australian Cavernicoles. MSc. Thesis, School of Zoology, University of New South Wales. Vol. 1 367 pp., Vol. 2 204 pp. + appendices

Majer, J.D., Callan, S.K., Edwards, K., Gunawardene, N.R. & Taylor, C.K. 2013. Baseline survey of the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Barrow Island. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 83: 13-112.

Richards, A.M. 1971. An ecological study of the cavernicolous fauna of the Nullarbor Plain southern Australia. Journal of Zoology, London 164: 1-60 pls I-V

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