DOES APONOMMA-VARANENSIS (ACARI, IXODIDA, IXODIDAE) OCCUR ON THE TAIWANESE MAINLAND

On 15 July 1976, teams from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 , Taipei, Taiwan, made 3 collections of ticks from beneath the dorsal scales of the Taiwan stink snake, Elaphe carinata, at Makung in the Pe nghu Islands, which lie astride the Tropic of Cancer in the Taiwan Str ait between southern mainland China and Taiwan proper. These ticks wer e later determined to be Aponomma varanensis (Supine, 1897), but this discovery was never published, and no member of the genus Aponomma has heretofore been reported from Taiwan or any of its outlying islets. B ecause suitable hosts, including E. carinata, are abundant on Taiwan a nd because A, varanensis is widely distributed in tropical Asia, it is argued that this or a related species of Aponomma will one day be fou nd on the Taiwanese mainland.