First record of the sea snake tick Amblyomma nitidum Hirst and Hirst, 1910 (Acari: Ixodidae) from Taiwan

Abstract

The sea snake tick (Amblyomma nitidum) is a host specialist of snakes in the genus Laticauda and is one of the few ticks which could be regarded as semi-marine. Yet despite the attention this species has received due to its bizarre ecology, its distribution remains poorly known as geographic records of its occurrence through the Asia-Pacific are highly fragmentary. For the first time this species is recorded from Taiwan based on specimens collected from the yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina).