First Description of the Immature Stages and Redescription of the Adults of <I>Cosmiomma hippopotamensis</I> (Acari: Ixodidae) With Notes on Its Bionomics

Abstract

Cosmiomma hippopotamensis (Denny, 1843) is one of the most unusual, beautiful, and rare tick species known to the world. All stages of this species possess a unique morphology, on the one hand making them easy to identify, while on the other they exhibit similarities to certain species of Amblyomma Koch, 1844, Dermacentor Koch, 1844, and Hyalomma Koch, 1844. Adults of C. hippopotamensis have been collected on only two occasions from their hosts, namely Hippopotamus amphibius L. and Diceros bicornis (L.), and have been recorded from only a few widely separated localities in East and southern Africa. Here, the larva and nymph are described and illustrated for the first time, while the male and female are illustrated and redescribed. Data on hosts, geographic distribution, and life cycle of C. hippopotamensis are also provided.

Parasites of domestic and wild animals in South Africa. XLIX. Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) infesting white and black rhinoceroses in southern Africa

“…hippopotamensis from a rhinoceros or a hippopotamus about 20 km to the north-west of Pretoria in 1840, and a male tick and female tick from this collection were described by Denny in 1843. No collections have been made in South Africa since then (Apanaskevich et al 2013 ). In Namibia, Bezuidenhout and Schneider ( 1972 ) made the last recorded collections of C. hippopotamensis in Kaokoland in the north-west of the country in 1971.…”

“…They collected 114 adult ticks from vegetation along footpaths used by rhinoceroses to get to water and successfully fed some of these ticks on a rhinoceros calf. One of the three female ticks that engorged on the calf laid a large batch of fertile eggs from which larvae hatched and these were used in studies to determine the life cycle of the tick (Apanaskevich et al 2013 ). The translocation of rhinos from Kaokoland to the Etosha National Park and settlement of humans in the north-west of the country has probably contributed to the disappearance of C. hippopotamensis in Namibia.…”

Haemaphysalis cretaceaa nymph of a new species of hard tick in Burmese amber

“…Indeed some (monotypic) genera here have quite specific host preferences: Cosmiomma is found as adults on hippos and rhinos (Aspanaskevich et al 2013) and Nosomma occurs on buffalo as adults and rodents when immature (Kahn et al 1982). These taxa may be constrained by the appearance of their hosts.…”