![]() ![]() Protocols for diagnosing pests and diseases underpin essentially all quarantine activities, and low-quality, inaccessible or absent taxonomic keys are major impediments to effective border biosecurity and pest management ( IPPC 2006, Lodge et al. The worldwide decline in taxonomic expertise ( Godfray 2002, Walter & Winterton 2007, Wheeler 2004) is inhibiting prevention and management of biological invasions ( Lodge et al. ![]() By enabling non-experts to carry out basic identifications, it is hoped that professionals in the health and agricultural industries in New Zealand can play a greater role in surveillance for exotic ticks. These keys have been digitised using Lucid® and Phoenix® software and are deployed at genera.html in a form that allows use by non-experts. This article presents dichotomous and polytomous keys to the eight species of hard tick that occur in New Zealand. This is of concern as 40–60% of exotic ticks submitted for identification by biosecurity staff in New Zealand are intercepted post border. ![]() The lack of access to these materials has the potential to lead to delays in the identification of exotic tick species. However, professionals in the biosecurity, health and agricultural industries in New Zealand have little access to user-friendly identification tools that would enable them to accurately identify the ticks that are already established in the country or to allow recognition of newly arrived exotics. Although exotic hard ticks (Ixodidae) are intercepted in New Zealand on a regular basis, the country has largely remained free of these organisms and the significant diseases that they can vector. New Zealand has a relatively small tick fauna, with nine described and one undescribed species belonging to the genera Ornithodoros, Amblyomma, Haemaphysalis and Ixodes. ![]()
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