Morphological abnormalities in Afrixodes ticks.

In mythology, teratology refers to fantastic creatures and monsters, but the "science of monsters" in biology refers to congenital abnormalities and abnormal formations. These anomalies are well reported in ticks, but only a few of them deal with Ixodes ticks, ticks collected from wildlife, or ticks from Africa. This study investigated a large collection of Afrotropical ticks, Ixodes (Afrixodes), collected from wildlife, which included two nymphs (Ixodes (A.) spp.) and one adult female (I. rasus) that turned out to be teratological specimens, presenting ectromely (missing leg). The present work represents the first report of morphological abnormalities in Ixodes (A.) rasus and Ixodes (A.) spp. collected on Muridae, Soricidae and Tragulidae in the Central African Republic and Gabon.