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 16. Rhipicephalus cliffordi Morel, 1965e . Afrotropical: 1) Angola , 2) Cameroon , 3) Central African Republic , 4) Congo , 5) Democratic Republic of the Congo , 6) Gabon , 7) Ivory Coast , 8) Liberia , 9) Nigeria , 10) Sierra Leone , 11) South Sudan , 12) Togo , 13) Uganda ( Matthysse & Colbo 1987 , Morel 2003 , Pourrut et al. 2011 , Uilenberg et al. 2013 ). Rhipicephalus cliffordi was treated as a synonym of Rhipicephalus pseudolongus in Walker et al. (2000) and Kolonin (2009) , and it was not included in the list of ticks of the world by Horak et al. (2002) . Conversely, Camicas et al. (1998) , Pourrut et al. (2011) and Uilenberg et al. (2013) treated Rhipicephalus cliffordi as a valid species. Guglielmone et al. (2009) noted the absence of type comparisons between Rhipicephalus cliffordi and related species, maintaining the validity of this name, a position also supported in Guglielmone & Nava (2014) and Guglielmone et al. (2014, 2020). The confusion that attends the morphological identification of Rhipicephalus cliffordi , Rhipicephalus compositus , Rhipicephalus longus , Rhipicephalus pseudolongus and Rhipicephalus senegalensis was discussed by Walker et al. (2000) and Uilenberg et al. (2013) . The geographic distribution of Rhipicephalus cliffordi is chiefly based on Morel (2003) , who cited many records of this tick published under the names of related species. As a result, our understanding of the range of Rhipicephalus cliffordi should be considered provisional.