The development of tick taxonomy and systematics in Australia and Papua New Guinea through the works of five late 20th century contributors and with comments on the place of Australasia in the study of the phylogeny and evolution of the ticks

Abstract

The largely unique fauna of ticks in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been studied for 250 years. Here, we briefly review the early stages of tick taxonomy in the region, then focus on the activities of five people who contributed much to our knowledge of ticks in Australasia during the second half of the 20th century: F.H.S Roberts, David H. Kemp, Douglas E. Moorhouse, Nixon Wilson and Harry Hoogstraal. We provide biographical notes on each and collated publication lists for Roberts, Kemp and Moorhouse. We recognize three eras of tick taxonomy in Australia. First, an era that we refer to as “colonial tick taxonomy”, where ticks were sent from the European colonies to taxonomists in Europe. Second, a brief but significant era that we refer to as “endemic tick taxonomy” defined by the works of F.H.S. Roberts. Thirdly, a final phase of “colonial taxonomy” where ticks were described by workers in the USA. In PNG there has been no phase of endemic tick taxonomy and, while Australian workers are once again describing new tick species, in PNG the USA continues to make the most significant contributions. Through this work, we now see Australasia as one of the “theatres of evolution” of Bothriocroton and Archaeocroton, the Amblyomma-like ticks without eyes. We briefly discuss the current hypotheses for the theatre of evolution of the Ixodida, consider the 22 genus and subgenus-level entities of the Prostriata (Ixodinae) as provisional biological entities, and provide observations on tick phylogenetics and future research. Finally, we outline additional genetic evidence, from a recent whole-transcriptome study, for the two clades of the subfamily Ixodinae (Prostriata), the Australasian Ixodes and all other Ixodes.