Author contribution
GF conceptualized, designed and coordinated the study and drafted the original manuscript. GF and ÉSz coordinated the citizen science project, morphologically identified ticks. ÉSz designed and managed the project websitehttps://www.kullancsfigyelo.hu/. GET, ZSL, ZSV performed laboratory work and sequencing. BZ, GK performed phylogenetic analysis. ZSL did data visualization. GK supervised the molecular and sequencing works. GET and GK edited and reviewed the manuscript and carried out data analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.