First report of Amblyomma papuanum hirst (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) from the dwarf cassowary, Casuarius bennetti gould (Aves: Struthioniformes: Casuariidae), with additional records of parasitism of Casuarius spp. by this tick

2006·1.7 MB·

by  Richard G Robbins

PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH.
108(4), 2006, pp. 1002-1004
NOTE
First Report of Amblyomma papuanum Hirst (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) from the
Dwarf Cassowary, Casuarius bennetti Gould (Aves: Struthioniformes: Casuariidae),
with Additional Records of Parasitism of Casuarius spp. by this Tick
Cassowaries, Casuarius spp., are large, bennetti. Roberts (1970) recorded this
flightless, cursorial birds native to deep, tick from the widespread Southern or
dense, tropical rainforests in the Aus- Double-wattled Cassowary, C. casuarius
tralo-Papuan area, where they can be (L.), in Sogert ((.26s, 147.35E)5 Central
difficult to locate and dangerous to Province, Papua New Guinea. No re-
approach (Keast 1964). Of the three cords of tick parasitism exist for the
extant species, the so-called Dwarf Cas- Northern Cassowary, C. unappendicula-
sowary, C. bennetti Gould, is least tus Blyth, which is confined to northern
known, although it has a broad range, New Guinea. Three collections of A.
extending from northwestern to south- papuanum in the U.S. National Tick
eastern New Guinea (Davies 2002); it is Collection (USNTC), Georgia Southern
also the only cassowary found in New University, are summarized in Table 1.
Britain (Mayr 1940). On 15 October A single record of this tick from an
2002, one of us (SEB), while working at echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus (Shaw),
the base of Papua New Guinea9s Mount in Cairns (16.578, 145.45E), north
Suckling (Owen Stanley Range), Oro (= Queensland (Roberts 1953), 1s notewor-
Northern) Province, was able to make thy because C. casuarius also occurs
a collection of two female and 21 larval throughout tropical northeastern Aus-
ticks from the head and neck of a spec- tralia (Cape York Peninsula southeast-
imen of C. bennetti that had been freshly ward to the vicinity of Townsville
speared and decapitated by indigenous (19.15S, 146:45E)), and both bird and
hunters (Fig. 1). The collection site mammal may be found together in
(9.32.50S, 149.04.14E) was in mature, tropical forest habitats (Nowak 1999).
primary forest characterized by numer- It is therefore possible that A. papuanum
ous large banyan trees and other Ficus is only accidental on the echidna and
species, and was located on the west that cassowaries are the principal hosts
bank of the Wai-io-a River, 17.7 km of this obscure tick species.
northwest (compass bearing 315°) of Our collection of A. papuanum has
Uiaku Village, elevation 350 m. All ticks been deposited in the USNTC as acces-
were shipped in 70% ethanol to RGR, sion RML 123680. We warmly thank
who identified the female specimens as Lorenza Beati, Institute of Arthropodol-
Amblyomma papuanum Hirst. The larvae ogy and Parasitology, and Lance A.
are almost certainly also A. papuanum, Durden, Department of Biology, Geor-
but the preimaginal stages of this tick gia Southern University, for generously
have not been described, and no reared making available all records of A.
series are available for comparison (Ca- papuanum in their care. Thanks also to
micas et al. 1998). David W. Hill, Armed Forces Pest
This is the first known collection of A. Management Board, for preparing the
papuanum, or any tick species, from C. color plate, and to Desmond Foley and
VOLUME 108, NUMBER 4 1003
Fig. 1. Head and neck of Casuarius bennetti from which specimens of Amblyomma papuanum were
collected. Arrows indicate female ticks.
1004 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
Table 1. Collections of Amblyomma papuanum in the U.S. National Tick Collection.
RML No. Tick Stage(s) Host Location Collector Date
18476 De cerde® Casuarius Papua New Guinea: Archbold Expedition, 31 August 1936
casuarius Western Province, AMNH**
Fly River, Lake
Daviumbu
45578 ANG a7 oS) Unknown ~~ Australia: Queensland, Archbold Expedition, June 1948
IN, 1L* Iron Range AMNH
99421 5 2 Casuarius Papua New Guinea: F. Klekham October 1958
casuarius Western Province,
Oriomo
* N = nymph, L = larva.
** American Museum of Natural History, New York.
James E. Pecor, Walter Reed Biosyste- Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker9s Mammals of the
World, 6th ed., Vol. I. Johns Hopkins Univer-
matics Unit, for assistance with the
sity Press, Baltimore. Ixx + 836 pp.
geographic coordinates.
Roberts, F. H. S. 1953. The Australian species of
Aponomma and Amblyomma (Ixodoidea). Aus-
LITERATURE CITED
tralian Journal of Zoology 1: 111-161.
Camicas, J.-L., J.-P. Hervy, F. Adam, and P.-C. 1970. Australian Ticks. Commonwealth
Morel. 1998. Les Tiques du Monde (Acarida, Scientific and Industrial Research Organiza-
Ixodida): Nomenclature, Stades décrits, Hotes, tion, Melbourne. iv + 267 pp.
Répartition (Espéces deécrites avant le 1/01/96).
Editions de l9Orstom, Paris. 233 pp. Richard G. Robbins and Sarah E.
Davies, S. J. J. F. 2002. Ratites and Tinamous.
Bush. (RGR) Armed Forces Pest Manage-
Oxford University Press. xxii + 310 pp.
Keast, J. A. 1964. Cassowary, pp. 122-123. In ment Board, Walter Reed Army Medical
Thomson, A. L., ed. A New Dictionary of Birds. Center, Washington, DC 20307-5001, U.S.A.
McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York. 928 pp. (e-mail: richard. [email protected]); (SEB)
Mayr, E. 1940. Birds collected during the Whitney
Natural History Museum, University of Kansas,
South Sea Expedition. XLI. Notes on New
Lawrence, KS 66045-7561, U.S.A. (e-mail:
Guinea birds. VI. American Museum Novi-
tates (1056): 1412. [email protected] )