Distribution of Ixodes ricinus in the British Isles: investigation of historical records

Ixodes ricinus Linnaeus (Acari: Ixodidae) is the most abundant and widely distributed tick in the British Isles, and is a vector for a number of bacterial, viral and protozoal pathogens of both medical and veterinary importance. This report provides an update to the historical distribution data of I. ricinus, published by the Biological Records Centre (BRC), Monks Wood in The Provisional Atlas of the Ticks (Ixodidae) of the British Isles by K. P. Martyn (1988), and is supplemented with additional BRC records since 1988, additional data from published scientific literature and unpublished field studies, and enhanced with spatial and temporal information on tick stages collected and their host associations. Records have been mapped at 10 km resolution and enhanced to 5 km, 1 km and 0.1 km. Differentiation between records representing one-off collections from those representing populations of I. ricinus has been achieved through the classification of the records into either reported or established populations. Detailed seasonality and host associations of records are investigated, highlighting the value in obtaining additional detailed contemporary data to aid risk assessments and research within this field.