Flagging records of Ixodes frontalis (Panzer, 1798) and dermacentor marginatus (Sulzer, 1776) (Acari: Ixodidae), and their first reporting from Coblenz region, Western Germany.

Abstract

Contrawise to mosquitoes, there is no country-wide long-term surveillance of ticks in Germany, leading to large gaps in coverage for distribution data. Here we report on results from two consecutive tick studies in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, conducted in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, a new focus of the ornate sheep tick Dermacentor marginatus was detected at a military training area east of Coblenz ("Schmidtenhöhe") which is partially managed as a nature reserve where old races of cattle and horses are grazing. Two unexpected further foci were discovered north and west of the city in 2024. In 2023, repeated flagging in a small area of a forest southwest of Coblenz ("Stadtwald") revealed four nymphs of the passerine bird tick Ixodes frontalis. However, over 99% of all flagged ticks turned out to belong to the species Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758).