A Case Report on the Human Infestation by a Hard Tick Ixodes nipponensis Found in Okayama, Japan (Acarina : Ixodidae)

A case of hard tick infestation to a patient, 75-year-old male living in Wake-Cho, Okayama Prefecture is reported. The patient seemed infested by ticks at his backyard bamboo bush where he had entered every other day for trash dumping. The tick was found on the skin surface of left axilla region in early June, 1984. On acarological observations the tick was identified as an adult female of Ixodes nipponensis Kitaoka and Saito, 1967 based on its body size and the morphological features of scutum, coxae and spiracular plates. This report is the second case of human infestation with hard ticks in Okayama Prefecture,Japan