Margaropus is a genus of ticks. Found in Africa, the genus is known best from Giraffidae.

Margaropus ticks are characterised as inornate, having eyes, lacking festoons, and with the legs of the male increasing in size from pair I to IV with the segments enlarged, giving them a beaded appearance, from which the genus name was taken, margaritopus signifying beady-legged.

In their native range, Margaropus species ticks parasitize larger land animals, including the three largest southern African wild ruminants, giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis; African buffaloes, Syncerus caffer; and common eland, Taurotragus oryx.

Although the genus is no longer considered a sister taxa to Boophilus, it may be a subgenus of, or the sister taxa to, Rhipicephalus.Barker, S.C., Kelava, S., Murrell, A., Cho, M., Teo, E.J.M., Nakao, R. & Apanaskevich, D.A. (2025) Margaropus Karsch, 1879 is not closely related to Boophilus Curtice, 1891 (Acari: Ixodidae). Zootaxa, 5569 (3), 477–492. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5569.3.4

Species The genus currently includes three species: Margaropus reidi Hoogstraal 1956 - the Sudanese beady-legged tickH. Hoogstraal. 1956. African Ixodoidea. I. Ticks of the Sudan (with special reference to Equatoria Province and with preliminary reviews of the genera Boophilus, Margaropus and Hyalomma). Research Report NM 005050.29.07, Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington D.C. 1101 pp. Margaropus wileyi Walker & Laurence 1973 - the East African giraffe tickJane B. Walker and B. R. Laurence. 1973. Margaropus wileyi sp. nov. (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae), a New Species of Tick from the Reticulated Giraffe. Onderstpoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 40(1):13-22; https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/53664/3walker1973.pdf?sequence=1, accessed June 30, 2018. Margaropus winthemi Karsch 1879 - the South African winter horse tick or beady-legged tickFerdinand Karsch. 1879. Zwei neue Arachniden des Berliner Museums. Mittheilungen des Münchener Entomologischen Verein, 3:95-96.

Notes

See also Photos of Margaropus winthemi

References