Geographic distribution of the hard ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) of the world by countries and territories Author Guglielmone, Alberto A. 0000-0001-5430-2889 guglielmone.alberto@inta.gob.ar Author Nava, Santiago 0000-0001-7791-4239 nava.santiago@inta.gob.ar Author Robbins, Richard G. 0000-0003-2443-5271 robbinsrg@si.edu text Zootaxa 2023 2023-03-07 5251 1 1 274 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5251.1.1 journal article 235222 10.11646/zootaxa.5251.1.1 43227427-a867-4744-9e4c-2b2302524890 1175-5326 7704190 3326BF76-A2FB-4244-BA4C-D0AF81F55637 218. Ixodes simplex Neumann, 1906 . Afrotropical: 1) Democratic Republic of the Congo , 2) Kenya , 3) South Africa , 4) South Sudan , 5) Zimbabwe ; Australasian: 1) Australia , 2) Papua New Guinea ; Oriental: 1) China (south), 2) Malaysia , 3) Taiwan , 4) Thailand , 5) Vietnam ; Palearctic: 1) Afghanistan , 2) Azerbaijan, 3) Bulgaria , 4) China (north), 5) Czechia , 6) France , 7) Germany , 8) Greece , 9) Hungary , 10) Iran , 11) Israel , 12) Italy , 13) Japan (except the Ryukyu Islands), 14) Lebanon , 15) Montenegro , 16) Palestine , 17) Poland , 18) Portugal , 19) Romania , 20) Russia , 21) Serbia , 22) South Korea , 23) Spain , 24) Slovakia , 25) Switzerland , 26) Turkey , 27) Ukraine ( Arthur 1956a , Hoogstraal 1973a, Walker 1974 , Filippova 1977 , Norval et al. 1987 , Kolonin 2003 , Cringoli et al. 2005 , Robbins 2005 , Chen et al. 2010 , Kim et al. 2011, Santos-Silva et al. 2011 , Bursali et al. 2012 , Bush & Robbins 2012 , Petney et al. 2012 , 2019 , Nowak-Chmura & Siuda 2012 , Burazerovic et al. 2015 , Benda et al. 2016 , Malek-Hosseini et al. 2016 , Horak et al. 2018 , Hornok et al. 2020a , Tsapko 2020 ). Ixodes simplex was described by Neumann (1906) from four specimens : one female of unknown origin, one female and one nymph from China , and one female from Gabon . Arthur (1956a) stated that the tick from Gabon was in fact collected in “Kashmir or a neighboring country,” but in his figures 26 and 28, Arthur (1956a) asserted that Kashmir was the source of this tick, which he proposed “to be elected as the type specimen.” Kolonin (2009) listed “ India (Kashmir)” within the range of Ixodes simplex , and India was also included within the geographic distribution of this tick by Guglielmone & Robbins (2018) and others. However, the Kashmir region encompasses territories in China , India and Pakistan . No additional information has been found affirming the alleged presence of Ixodes simplex in India (or Pakistan ), countries that are provisionally excluded from the range of this tick. Walker (1974) listed Ixodes africanus and Ixodes simplex as species found in Kenya , but the former name is a synonym of the latter ( Guglielmone & Nava 2014 ). Iran is included within the geographic distribution of Ixodes simplex based on Malek-Hosseini et al. (2016) , although Hosseini-Chegeni et al. (2019) did not include this species in their list of Iranian ticks, and Iran is therefore provisionally included within the range of this tick. Hornok et al. (2015) and Evans et al. (2019) presented molecular evidence suggesting that more than one species may exist under the name Ixodes simplex .