Maps of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) for Austria and South Tyrol, Italy

Abstract

A first compilation of georeferenced tick locations in Austria and South Tyrol, Italy, is presented here. This allows the tick fauna to be examined in the various climatic regions of the European Alps. The dataset comprises 424 tick locations of Austria and 48 tick locations of South Tyrol, which were digitized from literature and visualized in the form of geographical maps. The tick fauna of Austria includes two species of Argasidae in the genera Argas and Carios and 15 species of Ixodidae in the genera Dermacentor, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes, altogether 17 tick species. In addition, two species of Ixodidae in the genera Hyalomma (each spring imported by migratory birds) and Rhipicephalus (occasionally imported by dogs returning from abroad with their owners) are included in the tick atlas. Of these, the georeferenced locations of 18 tick species are depicted in maps. The occurrence of the one remaining tick species, Ixodes inopinatus, is given at the level of the federal states. The first Austrian distribution map of the long-legged bat tick Ixodes vespertilionis, which was reported from 21 caves, deserves special mention. The most common and widespread tick species is Ixodes ricinus, with records in all nine federal states of Austria, followed by Ixodes canisuga, Ixodes hexagonus, and I. vespertilionis in six federal states each. Haemaphysalis concinna and Dermacentor reticulatus are only endemic in the eastern plains, while Dermacentor marginatus only occurs in the west, in the Tyrolean Alpine valleys. Eight tick species were reported from South Tyrol, Italy. There, the most frequently flagged tick from the vegetation is also I. ricinus, while D. marginatus and Haemaphysalis punctata are often collected from sheep. The locations are shown together with those from North and East Tyrol on a separate Tyrol map. The tick atlas in Austria and South Tyrol as well as the underlying digital dataset in the supplement contribute to the closing of data gaps in global distribution maps of ticks and improve the data basis for new species distribution models.

Range ofIxodes laguri, a nidicolous tick that parasitizes critically endangered rodents, with details on its western distribution limit in Austria

“…In the Caucasus, Filippova and Stekolnikov (2007) found larvae of I. laguri together with larvae of I. ricinus and D. reticulatus . Ixodes laguri (Suppan, 2013) as well as I. ricinus and D. reticulatus (Vogelgesang et al, 2020; Rubel and Brugger, 2022) also occur sympatrically in Vienna. That there is only one documented location of I. laguri in Vienna up to now is probably due to the fact that no studies concerning ticks on small mammals were carried out for a long time.…”

“…These digitized locations, of course, are generally of lower accuracy than locations described by geographical coordinates determined by GPS in the field. To provide evidence of this, accuracy measures were given for all data referenced in Table 1 in accordance with a scheme established in previous studies (Rubel and Brugger, 2022). It is distinguished between high (h ≈ ±0.1 km), medium (m ≈ ±1 km), low (l ≈ ±10 km) and very low (v) accuracies.…”

The Eurasian shrew and vole tick Ixodes trianguliceps: geographical distribution, climate preference, and pathogens detected

“…It refers mainly to that kind of literature in which georeferenced findings are documented. For example, geographical coordinates of I. trianguliceps locations are already available for Austria (Rubel and Brugger 2022 ), Belgium (Obsomer et al. 2013 ) and Germany (Rubel et al.…”

“…More recent maps, which also take historical findings into account, have been compiled for Germany (Rubel et al. 2021 , 2023 ) and Austria (Rubel and Brugger 2022 ). A list of all countries with I. trianguliceps reports was very recently compiled by Guglielmone et al.…”

Ecological Predictors of Zoonotic Vector Status Among Dermacentor Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Trait-Based Approach

“…We collected geographic distribution data for each Dermacentor species by compiling a global database of georeferenced observations ( Supp Table S6 [online ]). Primary data sources for our geographic database included peer-reviewed journal publications, published georeferenced data sets ( Rubel et al 2014 , Estrada-Peña and de la Fuente 2016 , Zhang et al 2019 , Rubel and Brugger 2022 ), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility ( GBIF 2022a , b ), iNaturalist research-grade observations ( iNaturalist 2022 , see also GBIF 2022a ), and VectorMap (2019 ; see Supp Table S6 [online only ] for a list of the institutions holding the data records for each Dermacentor species). Our protocol for selecting, documenting, and excluding geographic data for this data set is described in Supp Table S6 (online only ).…”