Margaropus
| Margaropus | |
|---|---|
| Dorsal view of Margaropus female, with inset of male posterior below | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Ixodida |
| Family: | Ixodidae |
| Genus: | Margaropus Ferdinand Karsch, 1879 |
| Type species | |
| Margaropus winthemi | |
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.