Atlas of Ticks (acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Germany: 2nd Data Update with Focus on Introduced and Rarely Observed Species

This atlas provides updated maps based on georeferenced tick locations of 22 species endemic in Germany, three regularly imported tick species and one species that was previously frequently imported into Germany. Thus, the current version of the atlas of ticks in Germany contains distribution maps for a total of 26 tick species with the following numbers of newly georeferenced tick locations: 1 Argas reflexus, 10 Carios vespertilionis, 3 Dermacentor marginatus, 53 Dermacentor reticulatus, 10 Haemaphysalis concinna, 7 Haemaphysalis punctata, 2 Hyalomma aegyptium, 111 Hyalomma marginatum, 39 Hyalomma rufipes, 2 Ixodes arboricola, 2 Ixodes crenulatus (syn. Ixodes canisuga), 27 Ixodes frontalis, 43 Ixodes hexagonus, 6 Ixodes lividus, 271 Ixodes ricinus, 1 Ixodes rugicollis, 5 Ixodes trianguliceps, 1 Ixodes uriae, 2 Ixodes ventalloi, 1 Ornithodoros maritimus, and 32 Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato. Ixodes inopinatus has been removed from the previously included species list because more recent studies have shown that these were misidentifications. The rabbit tick I. ventalloi, the argasid seabird tick O. maritimus and the formerly frequently imported tortoise tick Hy. aegyptium, however, have been included in the current atlas of ticks in Germany. In total, the digital dataset available for Germany is updated by 629 new tick locations. These records increase the number of tick species mapped in the federal state Saxony by six, those in Hamburg by five, those in Brandenburg by four, those in Schleswig-Holstein by three, those in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Thuringia by two each, and those in Bremen, Northrhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate and Saarland by one each. Of the 26 tick species ever detected in Germany, 21 were observed in the period 2001–present. Thus, the second data update of the atlas of ticks in Germany provides the most comprehensive digital dataset to date on the distribution of tick species in Germany.