Results
This tick monitoring project is still ongoing but the data for the present study are from the period between 28 April and 7 December 2021. During this time interval, the websitehttps://www.kullancsfigyelo.hu/had 31325 individual visitors. A total of 137 hard tick specimens and several hundreds of photos were received. Some other arthropods, e.g. soft ticks, spiders, bugs and a beetle were also sent by participants as a by-catch. Most of the ticks were identified as Ixodes ricinus , but Dermacentor reticulatus, Dermacentor marginatus andHaemaphysalis inermis also occurred (Table 1.). Some participants sent only photos from specimens, in these cases the identification was usually possible only to the genus level.
Two specimens were morphologically identified as Hyalomma ticks. The first Hyalomma was discovered in a garden of the small town Bük (47°23’09.2”N 16°44’29.8”E) in Western Hungary (Vas County) on August 10. The tick was crawling on a dog’s leg when the submitter noticed it. This tick was morphologically identified as a maleHyalomma marginatum . The second specimen was found feeding on a cattle at a farm near Kiskunmajsa (46°26’09.6”N 19°41’13.4”E) in South-Eastern Hungary (Bács-Kiskun County) on September 10. This individual was morphologically identified as a Hyalomma rufipesmale. The dog and the cattle had never been abroad. Following morphological identification, Hyalomma ticks were stored in liquid nitrogen until molecular analyses. Amplification of the COX1 gene was successful for both specimens. Sequencing verified the previous morphological identification as Hy. marginatum for the first specimen. Based on the phylogenetic analysis with cognate sequences this individual most likely belongs to the Eurasian population (Figure 1.). Sequencing of the COX1 gene fragment of the second specimen confirmedHy. rufipes with the highest sequence similarity to a clade of mixed sequences from Europe and Africa. (Figure 2.)
Tick specimens were sent by citizen scientists from all over the country, the largest number from Budapest and its surroundings. The least data were received from the south-east of the country (Figure 3). Ticks were either collected from the environment or from hosts. Most ticks were removed by citizen scientists from humans, with a total of 45 such cases. The second most common hosts were dogs with 18 submissions (including the Hy. marginatum specimen) and then cats with seven. A single specimen was received from a cattle, this was the animal in which the Hy. rufipes was discovered.