Revisal Of Chinese Ticks List And Distribution, And Studies On The Biological Characters Of Some Rhipicephalinae Tick Species

Ticks are members of the order Ixodida, the superorder Parasitiformes (Arachida: Acari). The order Ixodida comprises 3 families: Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae. They are well known vectors transmitting a great variety of infectious pathogens and causing serious damages to human and livestock. The taxonomy and systematics of tick are the foundation of development in other research areas of tick. Studies on taxonomy and systematics of ticks are of great importance to provide elements about theory.With the wide application of modern scientific technology and the development of statistics, the taxonomy and systematics of ticks have been made great progress. Noteworthily, the total evidence analysis combining molecular biological data and morphological characteristics has improved the research of taxonomy and systematics greatly. This method does not only make the classification of ticks more impersonally, but also bring the phylogeny reflecting the natural relationships of ticks better. However, in recent decades, the lists of Chinese ticks has not been updated, and the researches of the systematics and taxonomy of ticks in China stay in the level of 1990s. So this paper reviewed the progress in the tick taxonomy, systematics and evolution in recent years, and on this basic, the main researches I have carried out are as follows:1 The checklists of Chinese ticks were published early, some of the systematics and taxonomy in them were out of date, and the species were incompletion. In order to reflect the new achievements of tick taxonomy, we revised the old lists of ticks in China according to the world valid genus and species names of ticks. Then there are 10 genus and 119 species names from 2 families, 6 subfamilies in the list of Chinese ticks.2 The distribution of ticks was arranged, on the foundation of the Chinese tick list and the characters of tick biogeographical distributions were analysed.3 In order to understand the characteristics of the Rhipicephalinae more clearly, I have observed the biological characteristics of Hyalomma asiaticum kozlovi, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus and R. haemaphysaloides haemaphysaloides (Rhipicephalinae) and Haemaphysalis montgomeryi (Haemaphysalinae), including life cycle, the characteristics of different developmental stages and the changes of body weight about larva, nymph and adult before and after feeding, the relationships between the sex ratio and the weight of engorged nymph, the daily average quantity of viposition about four tick species, the characteristics of oviposition and incubation about four tick species etc. The results provided some useful informations for the changes of the classification of Rhipicephalinae.