Ticksbase

Information and credits

 

Click here to open the TicksBase data portal

 

TicksBase is a searchable taxonomic catalogue of all known ticks of the world, currently comprising 889 species (702 Ixodid, 186 Argasid and 1 Nuttalliella tick (sub-)species), including their synonyms and common names. Limited data on the distribution of several medically and veterinary important tick species in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin and the Neotropics is available in TicksBase as well. More detailed information on the distribution of ticks can be found in the Virtual Tick Museum.

 

TicksBase is based on the ‘World list of valid tick names’ published in 2002 by Ivan G. Horak, Jean-Louis Camicas and James E. Keirans 1. Several species (5) that are not included in this list but of which valid (re)descriptions were published afterwards have been added, together with fossil taxa (4), as ‘Provisionally Accepted’ names.

 

Changes/additions to this list as suggested in the latest list of valid tick names, published in 2004 by Steve Barker and Anna Murrell 2, have not (yet) been incorporated in this version of TicksBase.

 

Ard Nijhof (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, the Netherlands) is responsible for the database structure and input, the inclusion of the list of synonyms based on the 1998 publication ‘Les tiques du monde, nomenclature, stades décrits, hôtes, répartition (Acarida, Ixodida)’ by Jean-Louis Camicas, Jean-Paul Hervy, François Adam and Pierre-Claude Morel 3 and various common names with literature references.

 

Alberto A. Guglielmone (INTA, Rafaela, Argentine) provided information on common names and distribution of tick species in the Neotropical and Nearctic region as well as general editing of the database.

 

Ivan G. Horak (Faculty of Veterinary Science, Onderstepoort, South Africa) edited the electronic version of the valid species list and provided information on common names of ticks in South Africa.

 

Hans Nieuwenhuijs (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands) created the first version of TicksBase (or TickBase as it was previously called).

 

The name status of a particular species in the valid species list can either be ‘Accepted’ or ‘Provisionally accepted’. The latter implicates that the dataset compilers currently accept the name as valid, but with some elements of taxonomic or nomenclatural doubt. The name status was determined by Alberto A. Guglielmone and Ard Nijhof.

 

The distribution data in TicksBase is mainly extracted from edited data take from the Virtual Tick Museum. The hosts mentioned may not always be the tick’s principal hosts but occasional hosts that carried the tick at the time of collecting. The host names occurring in TicksBase and the Virtual Tick Museum have been checked for their nomenclatural validity at the GBIF portal (www.GBIF.org) by Ard Nijhof.

 

References

  1. Horak I.G., Camicas J.-L., and Keirans J.E. 2002. The Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae (Acari: Ixodida): a world list of valid tick names. Exp Appl Acarol 28 (1-4): 27-54 [MEDLINE]
  2. Barker, S.C., and Murrell A. 2004. Systematics and evolution of ticks with a list of valid genus and species names. Parasitology 129: S15-S36
  3. Camicas, J.L., Hervy, J.P., Adam, F., and Morel, P.C. 1998. Les tiques du monde. Nomenclature, stades décrits, hôtes, repártition (Acarida, Ixodida). Paris, Orstom, 233 pp.