Margaropus Explained

Margaropus is a genus of ticks, characterized as inornate, having eyes, lacking festoons, and with the legs of the male increasing in size from pair I to IV with the segments enlarged, giving them a beaded appearance, from which the genus name was taken, margaritopus signifying beady-legged;^[1] the species name memorialized naturalist and entomologist Wilhelm von Winthem.

The genus currently includes three species:^[2]

• Margaropus reidi, Hoogstraal, 1956, the Sudanese beady-legged tick^[3]
• Margaropus wileyi, Walker & Laurence, 1973, the East African giraffe tick^[4]
• Margaropus winthemi, Karsch, 1879, the South African winter horse tick or beady-legged tick^[5]

In their native range, Margaropus species ticks parasitize larger land animals, including the three largest southern African wild ruminants, giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis; African buffaloes, Syncerus caffer; and common eland, Taurotragus oryx.^[6]

See also

• Photos of Margaropus winthemi

Notes and References

1. Book: Nuttall, George Henry Falkiner . ticks a monograph of the ixodiodea . CUP Archive . en.
2. Web site: ADW: Margaropus: CLASSIFICATION . 2023-10-26 . animaldiversity.org.
3. [Harry Hoogstraal|H. Hoogstraal]
4. [Jane Brotherton Walker|Jane B. Walker]
5. [Ferdinand Karsch]
6. 17933365 . 2007 . Horak . I. G . Ticks associated with the three largest wild ruminant species in southern Africa . The Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research . 74 . 3 . 231–42 . Golezardy . H . Uys . A. C . 10.4102/ojvr.v74i3.126 . free . 2263/5133 . free .