New Teratological Tick Specimens (Acari: Ixodidae) From Turkey

During our survey on ticks parasitizing animals, two teratological tick specimens belonging to Ixodes frontalis (Panzer) and Rhipicephalus annulatus (Say) were collected from a bird and cattle, respectively. These samples exhibited unique morphological anomalies, including partial twinning of the posterior region of the idiosoma with two anal openings. To our knowledge, such teratological changes in I. frontalis and R. annulatus ticks have been reported for the first time