Morphological Identification of Hyalomma dromedarii Tick of Camel and its Morphological Differentiation from Hyalomma anatolicumanatolicum tick of Cattle in Bikaner, Rajasthan

Ticks of genus Hyalomma are prominent vectors of domestic animal and human pathogenic agents as well as hematophagous parasites. Hyalomma dromedarii and Hyalomma anatolicumanatolicum are primarily ectoparasites of camel and cattle, respectively and are prevalent in India and other tropical and sub-tropical countries. Being the ticks of interest, from regional point of view, the present paper is based on morphological identification and comparison of both the ticks on the basis of our observations on the morphological characters of adult males and females of both species in the Bikaner region. In males, key morphologically distinguishable characters identified as the sub-anal plates of H. dromedarii aligned outside the longitudinal aixs of the adanal plates while in case of H. a. anatolicum they are aligned in the same axis. In females of H. dromedarii the genital aperture posterior lips are narrow V shaped while in H. a. anatolicum they are U shaped. So, it becomes essential to morphologically differentiate H. dromedarii from H. anatolicumanatolicum for the actual estimation and assessment of H. dromedarii tick in this region.