Haemaphysalis pentalagi, the Ryukyu rabbit tick, is an endangered species endemic to Japan where it is only known from Amami Ōshima, an island in the Ryukyu archipelago. It is a host specific parasite of the Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi) which is endemic to the islands of Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima. Due to its host-specific relationship with the endangered Amami rabbit, it is considered a co-endangered species.
The Ryukyu rabbit tick was originally described and named in 1935 based on a single male specimen.[2] Full descriptions of the male, female, nymphal and larval stages were published in April 1970 in the Journal of Parasitology by Harry Hoogstraal and Noboru Yamagutit.[3]
The Ryukyu rabbit tick is the subject of the first dedicated conservation program for a globally threatened parasite which began in 2022.[4] This program involves both in-situ monitoring of wild populations of this tick and ex-situ captive breeding of an insurance population in the event that the species becomes extinct in the wild.
^Hoogstraal, Harry; Yamaguti, Noboru (1970). "Haemaphysalis (H.) pentalagi Pospelova-Shtrom, a Parasite of the Japanese Black Rabbit: Redescription of the Male and Descriptions of the Female, Nymph, and Larva (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae)". The Journal of Parasitology. 56 (2): 367–374. doi:10.2307/3277677. ISSN0022-3395. JSTOR3277677.
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