Rhipicephalus senegalensis Koch 1844

74. Rhipicephalus senegalensis Koch, 1844a.

Afrotropical: 1) Benin, 2) Burkina Faso, 3) Cameroon, 4) Central African Republic, 5) Chad (south), 6) Congo, 7) Democratic Republic of the Congo, 8) Ghana, 9) Guinea, 10) Guinea-Bissau, 11) Ivory Coast, 12) Liberia, 13) Mali (south), 14) Nigeria, 15) Senegal, 16) Sierra Leone, 17) South Sudan, 18) Togo, 19) Uganda (Matthysse & Colbo 1987, Walker et al. 2000, Terenius et al. 2000, Morel 2003, Ntiamoa-Baidu et al. 2004, Tomassone et al. 2004, Uilenberg et al. 2013, Sylla et al. 2021).

Walker et al. (2000) cautioned that morphological separation of Rhipicephalus senegalensis from Rhipicephalus longus and Rhipicephalus pseudolongus is difficult, and that Rhipicephalus senegalensis has been widely confused with Rhipicephalus simus in the past. Matthysse & Colbo (1987) also discussed the difficulties involved in identifying this species. The southern limit of Rhipicephalus senegalensis was not clearly defined by Walker et al. (2000), although all bona fide localities were situated north of the Equator, a view accepted here as opposed to the broader southern range depicted in Vassiliades (1964) and Morel (2003). However, the presence of this tick in Congo is based on these latter authors. ElGhali & Hassan (2012) did not recognize the occurrence of Rhipicephalus senegalensis in South Sudan, but this country is included here.

Rhipicephalus senegalensis was described by Koch (1844a) from three female ticks, two collected in Senegal, and the third specimen allegedly found in Egypt (Moritz & Fischer 1981). However, Hoogstraal (1956a) believed the Egyptian tick had either been misidentified or was accessioned with an incorrect locality label. Eid et al. (2015) claimed that Rhipicephalus senegalensis is found in Jordan, but its presence in that country requires confirmation.