Rhipicephalus capensis (Acari: Ixodidae), A geographically restricted South African tick, returning with a human traveler to the United States

Abstract

Accelerated frequency of recreational travel, globalization of business, and legal and illegal plant and animal trades have contributed to enduring introductions of exotic ticks into the United States. We herein report a new incursion of a female Rhipicephalus capensis on a human traveler returning to Connecticut from South Africa. Natural distribution of R. capensis is restricted to the Western Cape Province and southwestern portion of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, an area called the Fynbos Biome, and adults of this species primarily parasitize large, wild ungulate hosts. Only one previous international introduction of this tick is documented on imported South African plant material into the United States in 1985. The specimen described here was identified initially by morphological means and subsequently, a partial DNA sequence for the mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene was generated in a PCR assay, which showed 94.86% identity to an R. capensis sequence in GenBank. We also provide information on several other previously unreported or under-reported incursions by South African ticks into the United States in association with imported Fynbos floricultural materials and speckled Cape tortoises, Chersobius signatus. Documentation of these additional exotic tick species incursions highlights ongoing challenges of the international movement of humans, animals, and other goods carrying ticks of human and veterinary importance.

Keywords: Exotic tick; Fynbos Biome; Ixodes corwini; Ixodes pilosus; Rhipicephalus capensis; South Africa.