The genus Hyalomma includes some of the most medically and veterinarily important tick species in the world. To clarify and identify the current distribution of the species of Hyalomma, field studies were conducted in 65 localities in Turkey and five localities in Cyprus. Additionally, using mitochondrial 12S and 16S ribosomal DNA, specimens of Hyalomma from Turkey, H. excavatum from Cyprus, H. marginatum from Spain and Italy were evaluated together with the available sequences obtained from Genbank. Morphological and molecular analyses demonstrated the presence of four species in Turkey: H. marginatum, H. excavatum, H. aegyptium and H. asiaticum. Hyalomma marginatum is the dominant species in the Central and Northern parts of Turkey, whereas H. excavatum distributes mostly in the Southern parts. Hyalomma asiaticum is restricted to the Southeastern Anatolia. However, some sympatric regions were observed for these species. Phylogenetic trees obtained with Maximum Likelihood method demonstrated five clades. Data supported previous conclusions, but placed H. asiaticum, H. scupense, H. dromedarii and H. aegyptium in different clades with high bootstrap values. Specimens of H. anatolicum group and H. marginatum complex are sister groups. Pairwise distance analyses of these groups showed 2.8 and 3% differences for 12S rDNA and 16S rDNA, respectively. Therefore, additional analyses with the samples from different locations using different markers need to evaluate the exact status of the species of these groups.

The study was performed in Ankara Province, Central Anatolia (39°56′N, 32°52′E). This province covers a total surface area of 25,938 km 2 . In the central and southern parts of the province, the climate is continental, with steppetype vegetation. However, in the northern part of the region, the climate changes to a more humid and wet Black Sea climate, and vegetation changes to forests (generally rare oak forests). Altitude varies between 900 and 2015 m above sea level, and mean annual temperature is 14.4 °C Abstract: A systematic study has been carried out on hard ticks from Ankara Province, Turkey. Between April 2010 and July 2012, 1800 tick specimens belonging to 9 species were identified at 31 locations in 9 districts. Tick species are listed as follows: Rhipicephalus sanguineus group (43.44%), Rhipicephalus bursa (36.67%), Hyalomma marginatum (8.83%), Haemaphysalis parva (6%), Hyalomma aegyptium (2.39%), Hyalomma excavatum (1.33%), Dermacentor marginatus (1.06%), Haemaphysalis punctata (0.22%), and Hyalomma detritum (0.06%). Ticks were collected from host animals and from vegetation via the flagging method. The species of the genus Rhipicephalus were present in most of the study areas, the most common being the Rhipicephalus sanguineus group (20/31). Hyalomma species were mostly collected from host animals, with Hyalomma marginatum being the most common species in this genus (8.83%). We also observed seasonal variations in abundance, with the highest number in May. The district with the most abundant ticks was determined to be Kızılcahamam, which had the highest tick abundance rate of 28.6%.