New Zealand Ticks

There are nine species of tick present in New Zealand (listed below). Only one species, Haemaphysalis longicornis was introduced, the rest are native species.Cario capensis (=Ornithidoros capensis) is the only soft tick (Family Argasidae) in New Zealand, the other eight species are hard ticks (Family Ixodidae). The majority of New Zealand ticks are sea bird ticks. The exceptions are; Aponomma sphenodonti (Tuatara tick), Haemaphysalis longicornis (Cattle tick), and Ixodes anatis (Kiwi tick).A new species of Encyrtid wasp (Ixodiphagus sp.) has been found parasitising two New Zealand tick species (Ixodes euyptidis and Ix. uriae) in Otago (Health, A.C.G. and R.P. Cane. 2009. A new species of Ixodiphagus (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Encyrtidae) parasitising seabirds in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology (accepted)).