Identification of Ixodes persulcatus and Ixodes pavlovskyi occidentalis (Ixodidae) by the analysis of the gene fragment COXI (cytochrome oxidase subunit I)

: Ticks of the genus Ixodes were collected in 2010 in the lowland part of Toguchinsk district of Novosibirsk Province (Russia) and in the forest-park area of Novosibirsk Scientific Centre and its outskirts (Sovetskiy district of Novosibirsk), and identified as Ixodes persulcatus (Schulze, 1930) (18 females and 13 males) and Ixodes pavlovskyi (13 females and 10 males). Ten specimens of each sex from each collecting site were examined. The following nine characters were used: the length and width of the scutum (conscutum) and of the gnathosoma in ventral view; the length of palpal segments II-III; the width of the hypostome; the length of idiosoma with scapula, of leg I, of the medial spur on fore coxa (Taiga..., 1985; Filippova, Musatov, 1996; Filippova, Panova, 1998). According to morphometric characters, specimens of Ixodes pavlovskyi collected in the forest-park area of the Novosibirsk Scientific Centre were identified as the subspecies I. p. occidentalis Filippova et Panova, 1998. Nucleotide sequences of the COI mitochondrial gene fragment were determined for 56 ticks. Phylogenetic analysis of the COI gene fragment in representatives of the persulcatus-ricinus species-group dwelling in Asia demonstrated high degree of conservatism. Molecular-genetic methods allow reliable identification of morphologically similar species I. pavlovskyi and I. persulcatus, pathogenic for humans.