Abstract
Five tick bite cases (a 58-year-old man, a 85-year-old woman, a 54-year-old woman, a 74-year-old woman and a 68-year-old woman) from Okayama Prefecture are additionally reported. The causative tick species were identified as Ixodes ovatus Neumann, 1899 (nymph and adult female, Cases 1 and 5), Haemaphysalis flava Neumann, 1897 (adult female, Cases 2 and 4) and Ixodes nipponensis Kitaoka and Saito, 1967 (adult female, Case 3) based on morphology of capitulum, coxae, internal spurs, spiracular plates and genital aperture. The tick bites were thought to have been occurred in hilly areas in Cases 1 and 3,in a vegetable garden and on a grassy plain in Cases 2 and 5,the place of bite acquisition could not be traced in Case 4. The present report covers the 14th to 18th cases of hard tick infestation in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.
