''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;
[Don R. Arthur. 1960. ''Ticks, Part V, The Genera Dermacentor, Anocentor, Cosmiomma, Boophilus, Margaropus'', Cambridge University Press, pp. 226-247; https://books.google.com/books?id=k688AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=margaropus+ticks&source=bl&ots=c4TelGTqdi&sig=hsjNlfIVkrRXpofXqpXruH8USuM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiA17SCh_zbAhXjp1kKHS24B_k4ChDoAQhDMAE#v=onepage&q=margaropus%20ticks&f=false, accessed June 30, 2018.] the species name memorialized
naturalist and
entomologist
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
Wilhelm von Winthem.
The
genus currently includes three
species:
[Animal Diversity Web: ''Margaropus'', https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Margaropus/classification/#Margaropus, accessed June 30, 2018.]
*''
Margaropus reidi'',
Hoogstraal, 1956, the Sudanese beady-legged tick
[ H. Hoogstraal. 1956. African Ixodoidea. I. Ticks of the Sudan (with special reference to Equatoria Province and with preliminary reviews of the genera ''Boophilus'', ''Margaropus'' and ''Hyalomma''). Research Report NM 005050.29.07, Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington D.C. 1101 pp.]
*''
Margaropus wileyi'',
Walker & Laurence, 1973, the East African giraffe tick
[ Jane B. Walker and B. R. Laurence. 1973. ''Margaropus wileyi'' sp. nov. (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae), a New Species of Tick from the Reticulated Giraffe. ''Onderstpoort Journal of Veterinary Research'', 40(1):13-22; https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/53664/3walker1973.pdf?sequence=1, accessed June 30, 2018.]
*''
Margaropus winthemi'',
Karsch, 1879, the South African winter horse tick or beady-legged tick
[ Ferdinand Karsch. 1879. Zwei neue Arachniden des Berliner Museums. ''Mittheilungen des Münchener Entomologischen Verein'', 3:95-96.]
In their native range, ''Margaropus'' species ticks
parasitize
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has c ...
larger land animals, including the three largest southern African wild
ruminants,
giraffes, ''
Giraffa camelopardalis''; African buffaloes, ''
Syncerus caffer''; and
common eland, ''
Taurotragus oryx''.
See also
Photos of ''Margaropus winthemi''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6050635
Ticks
Ixodidae