New records of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) from South Carolina

Tick-borne diseases are of increasing economic importance. The biogeographical distributions of tick species are important in the distribution of tick-borne diseases. The tick fauna of South Carolina was previously known to include 19 species, and the most recent tick checklist focused primarily on the coastal counties in the state. We report an additional seven species of ticks from South Carolina, bringing the total number of tick species collected in the state to 26, and provide information on tick species in the foothills and mountainous area of the state. The newly reported species are Aponomma trimaculatum (Lucas), Argas persicus (Oken), Haemaphysalis chordeilis (Packard), Ixodes dentatus Marx, I. muris Bishopp & Smith, Otobius megnini (Dugés), and Rhipicephalus appendiculatus Neumann.