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Haemaphysalis (Alloceraea) kitaokai sp. n. is described from males, females, and laboratory reared nymphs and larvae. Little is known about the biology of this exceptionally interesting, structurally primitive tick. As apparently typical of the subgenus Alloceraea, eggs are few and rather large and larval and nymphal feeding is unusually rapid. Adults have been collected from cattle and a horse and from the Japanese serow, Capricornis crispus crispus (Temminck), and the Japanese or sika deer, Cervus nippon nippon Temminck, in Honshu and Kyushu islands. The three-host life cycle is completed in 1 year; adults feed in late fall and early winter and engorged females overwinter. Two damaged female specimens from a deer in Taiwan are tentatively referred to H. (A.) kitaokai sp. n. Keys are provided to distinguish this species from H. (A.) inermis Birula (southern Europe, Turkey, southwestern USSR, northern Iran), H. (A.) aponommoides Warburton (Nepal and Himalayas of India), and H. (A.) vietnamensis Hoogstraal and Wilson (Vietnam highlands). The taxon H. ambigua Neumann, 1901, is shown to be a synonym of H. inermis Birula, 1895. Samples of the Japanese population have previously been reported in literature as inermis, aponommoides, or ambigua.

The male and female type material of Haemaphysalis (Allophysalis) warburtoni Nuttall, from a serow in Szechwan, China, is redescribed and males of this species are reported from a Himalayan thar in Uttar Pradesh, India. Both hosts are mountain-inhabiting members of the Order Artiodactyla (Bovidae, Caprinae). The single specimen reported as H. warburtoni from Formosa (Taiwan) is found to represent H. (H.) formosensis Neumann. The hosts, biology, life cycle, and disease relationships of H. (A.) warburtoni have been the subject of numerous Soviet reports; many (if not all) of these refer actually to H. (A.) pospelovashtromae sp. n., which is described from males, females, nymphs, and larvae. Adults of the newly recognized species parasitize cattle and domestic and wild goats in the mountains of southern RSFSR and southern republics of USSR.

Haemaphysalis (Allophysalis) kopetdaghica Kerbabaev 1962, was poorly described and crudely sketched from 3 males, 1 female, 3 nymphs, and 3 larvae taken from a wild goat, leopard, and domestic horse in the upper belt of the Kopet Dag Mountains, Turkmen SSR. The validity of this taxon has been questioned by Soviet and other specialists. However, 117 adults and 88 immatures of a single Haemaphysalis species recently taken from a young wild goat at ca. 2,400 m altitude in the Elburz Mountains of Iran represent this taxon beyond a reasonable doubt. The Iranian sample is redescribed, illustrated, and compared biologically and structurally with the 6 other species comprising the subgenus Allophysalis Hoogstraal, which inhabit 2,500 to 4,000 m altitude zones from the Caspian area to Mongolia (Iran, USSR, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, and Mongolia). Ungulates (goral, serow, thar, musk deer, ibex, yak, sheep, goat, cow, horse) are the chief hosts of adults of each Allophysalis species and also of the immatures of some species (immatures of one species are recorded from the monal pheasant as well as from ungulates). Rodents and the pika are the chief hosts of immatures of a second group of species in this subgenus. The distinctive H. (A.) kopetdaghica shares several specialized structural features between the immature and adult stages and shows less sexual dimorphism than in other Allophysalis species.

Haemaphysalis tibetensis sp. n. is described from males and females, and from nymphs that are presumed to represent the same species. These were collected at high altitudes in mountain valleys in the southwestern and southeastern corners of Tibet. One collection, of adults and nymphs, was taken from domestic dogs, the other, of adults only, was presumably from vegetation. These specimens have been compared with the lectotype and syntype series of H. (Allophysalis) warburtoni Nuttall from China and with both sexes and reared nymphs referred to H. (A.) warburtoni from USSR. Adults of H. tibetensis sp. n. are superficially similar to those in these samples from China and USSR but differ from them in several critical details. The nymphs assigned to the new species, however, differ widely from those reared from the USSR population of H. (A.) warburtoni and are closely related to the nymphs of H. inermis Birula, a species in the structurally most primitive subgenus Alloceraea Schulze. Although many of the approximately 115 species and subspecies of Haemaphysalis lucidly illustrate patterns of speciation in this generic assemblage, none is more remarkable in this respect than H. tibetensis sp. n. Subgeneric classification of the new species is postponed pending results of further studies.

The internal morphology of the female tick Nuttalliella namaqua Bedford (Nuttalliellidae) is described and compared with that of the families Argasidae and Ixodidae. Stomach lobe numbers and arrangement are alike in the three families but the extensive caecal subdivisions of argasids and the long caecal looping of ixodids are absent. The rectal sac is unlobed as in ixodids. The route of the Malpighian tubules among body organs is as in argasids. The transverse position of the ovary, bilobed uterus, and vaginal division into cervical and vestibular parts are as in argasids; however, the connecting tube joining the uterus and cervical vagina and the valve between the vaginal divisions are ixodid characters. Gene's organ saccular numbers and arrangement are unique to Nuttalliellidae. One dorsal and four ventral tracheal trunks arising from the spiracular atrium and branching to several tracheae are as in argasids. Thus, the internal morphology of Nuttalliellidae combines certain characteristics of the Argasidae and Ixodidae and also has characters unique to this family.

Haemaphysalis (Rhipistoma) eupleres Hoogstraal, Kohls and Trapido 1965, was described and partially illustrated from a single damaged female from the falanouc, or small-toothed mongoose, Eupleres sp., from an unstated locality in Madagascar. Data are here presented for two collections (9 males, 17 females) from two localities in Tamatave Province, one from E. goudotii Doyère, the other from an unstated host. The male is described and illustrated; a complete female is illustrated.

The name Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann, 1901, originally described from Australia, is resurrected for a distinctive taxon in the subgenus Kaiseriana, and the adult and immature stages are redescribed. This species has consistently been referred to in literature as H. bispinosa Neumann, 1897, a tropical Asian species from which it is easily distinguished structurally and biologically and which does not occur in Australia or New Zealand or in other areas where longicornis is reported. H. (K.) longicornis appears to have been imported into Australia from northern Japan in the nineteenth century and thence to New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Fiji. [A living female longicornis shipped to Hawaii from Australia on a sheep dog destined for Texas is recorded.] Reproduction of longicornis is parthenogenetic in all these areas, as well as in most of Primorye (northeastern USSR) and in Hokkaido and northern Honshu Islands of Japan. Strains of the bisexual population from southern Honshu and Kyushu Islands of Japan, and from Korea and the extreme south of Primorye, tentatively attributed to this taxon, differ only in that some are slightly smaller in average size. Apparently parthenogenetic and bisexual populations occur in northeastern China. The taxon H. neumanni Dönitz, 1905, is a synonym of H. (K.) longicornis. As shown elsewhere by Oliver and Bremner, longicornis represents the only known example of triploidy in ticks; chromosomes number 32 or 33 in the obligately parthenogenetic female and 31 in the reproductively nonfunctional male. This species is a vector of Coxiella burneti (Q fever) and is capable of transmitting Theileria sergenti, T. mutans, and the virus causing Russian spring-summer encephalitis. It is also a serious pest of cattle, horses, and deer. Life cycle data for laboratory reared material of H. (K.) longicornis from Japan are presented. In an Addendum, a female specimen from Tonga, Friendly Islands, is recorded.

The 18 known species in the newly defined haemaphysalid subgenus Ornithophysalis represent the phylogenetic branch from which the numerous (ca. 30) mammal-parasitizing species of the subgenus Rhipistoma Koch have apparently evolved. Birds are characteristic hosts of most Ornithophysalis species; some parasitize birds and mammals, others only mammals. The subgenus is divided into five structural-biological groups of species: H. (O.) doenitzi group: doenitzi, undescribed sp., madagascariensis, hoodi; chiefly birds; Oriental and Australian, Palearctic, Malagasy, and Ethiopian Faunal Regions, respectively. H. (O.) simplex group: simplex, tauffliebi, megalaimae, minuta, bandicota, sciuri; birds and/or mammals; Oriental, Malagasy, Ethiopian. H. (O.) verticalis group: verticalis, Oriental (NE China), mammals. H. (O.) ornithophila group: ornithophila, howletti; birds and mammals, Oriental. H. (O.) humerosa group: ratti, humerosa, bremneri, petrogalis, lagostrophi; birds and/or mammals; Australia-New Guinea. The type species of the subgenus is H. (O.) doenitzi Warburton and Nuttall, 1909. Junior synonyms of doenitzi are centropi Kohls, 1949, and weidneri Santos Dias, 1958. H. pavlovskyi Pospelova-Shtrom of Tadzhik SSR also appears to be a junior synonym but we have not seen specimens. We record the typical and the variable structural characteristics of adult and immature doenitzi samples from Sri Lanka (= Ceylon), India, southern Nepal, Burma, Laos, southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore (type locality), Borneo, New Guinea, and northeastern Australia. Among 102 collections with confirmed host records, 85 are from 16 families and 32 genera of ground-feeding birds [especially Centropus spp. (40 records) and seven genera of Phasianidae]. Hares, Lepus, are represented by 14 records, mostly from Taiwan; single records are from a Rattus, a human, and a tortoise. Collections of doenitzi have been made in relatively numerous localities but most consist of few specimens in various feeding states which are difficult to analyze statistically. Ornithophysalis populations in bordering and adjacent ecological and geographical areas of the Palearctic and Oriental Faunal Regions are in special need of more investigation. The role of Ornithophysalis ticks as vectors of viruses has not been studied.

The lectotype or neotype specimens of these four species are redescribed and illustrated as part of an attempt to stabilize species concepts in the haemaphysalid sub genus Kaiseriana Santos Dias.

Haemaphysalis (Ornithophysalis) kardarsani sp. n. is described from males, females, and nymphs taken in a lowland virgin forest in Central Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia. Hosts were murine rodents, mostly the common forest rat, Rattus dominator Thomas. A nymph infested the less common shrew-rat, Echiothrix leucura Gray. This is one of few haemaphysalines in which both adults and immatures parasitize rodents, and it is the smallest (male avg. 0.99 mm long, 0.78 mm broad) of the ca. 150 species in the genus. Haemaphysalis (O.) kadarsani is closely related to H. (O.) sciuri Kohls, a tree-squirrel parasite of Mindanao, Philippines.