GENETIC-EVIDENCE AGAINST A MORPHOLOGICALLY SUGGESTIVE CONSPECIFICITY OF DERMACENTOR-RETICULATUS AND D-MARGINATUS (ACARI, IXODIDAE)

Dermacentor reticulatus and D. marginatus exhibit overlapping phenotyp es. The possibility of conspecificity was investigated on the nucleoti de level by comparing DNA sequences of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS 2) of the rDNA gene. The inter-specific polymorphism was more than 20-times greater than the intra-specific polymorphism of 3 D . reticulatus strains of different geographic origins. Furthermore, th e degree of polymorphisms between D. reticulatus and D. marginatus was found to be of the same order of magnitude as that between D. anderso ni and D. variabilis, for which separate species status is accepted. T hese genomic findings do not support a possible conspecificity of D. r eticulatus and D. marginatus.