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)).
The most common tick the New Zealand public is likely to come across is the Cattle tick or Bush tick, click on the icon below to read about it.
