The Subgenus Persicargas (Ixodoidea, Argasidae, Argas). 10. A. (P.) streptopelia, New Species, a Widely Distributed Parasite of Resident and Migrating Doves in Africa and Cyprus, and Epidemiological Considerations1

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Abstract
Argas (Persicargas) streptopelia, n. sp., is described from laboratory-reared adults, nymphs, and larvae, and from larvae infesting doves, Streptopelia spp., in Cyprus, Egypt, and Sudan, and “birds” in South-West Africa. The persicus-like adults and nymphs have a broadly oval body with lateral cells containing large, setiferous pits. Larvae have a highly distinctive dorsal plate and the body becomes uniquely broadly cordiform during feeding. On 218 northward (spring) migrating Streptopelia turtur subsp. examined in Cyprus in 1969, 34 (15.6%) carried larvae (mean infestation load 17.2 larvae per dove). Larvae attach to the host body and legs, never to the head; thus they were overlooked for many years. From comparing data for larval dropping from living field-collected hosts and for laboratory rearing, it is postulated that the doves taken in Cyprus became infested 1–10 days earlier in their wintering ground in Africa and that many larvae are carried some distance into Eurasia. Free-living populations of A. (P.) streptopelia, have not yet been discovered in Africa or Eurasia, This tick species' wide distribution and parasitism of migrating doves, some of which are viremic, is of much epidemiological interest. The presence of immature stages of the African Hyalomma marginatum rufipes Koch and Amblyomma lepidum Dönitz on the same migrating doves in Cyprus adds to the scope of this importance.

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