''Otobius'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

in the soft-bodied

tick Ticks (order Ixodida) are parasitic arachnids that are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, species, and "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by ...

family,

Argasidae The Argasidae are the family of soft ticks, one of the three families of ticks. The family contains 193 species, although the composition of the genera is less certain, and more study is needed before the genera can become stable. The currentl ...

. While similar to the genus '' Ornithodoros'' it is characterized by a

vestigial Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on co ...

hypostome In zoology, the hypostome can refer to structures in distinct animal groups: *Hypostome (trilobite), the ventral mouthpart plate in trilobites *Hypostome (tick), the barbed attachment structure associated with the mouthparts of parasitic arachnids ...

in adults, despite being developed in nymphs, in addition to the absence of both eyes and hood.

Species

Three species of ''Otobius'' are recognized.''Otobius'' N.Banks, 1912 in GBIF Secretariat (2017). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2019-01-22.Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2019. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Otobius/classification/ *'' Otobius lagophilus'' Cooley & Kohls, 1940 *'' Otobius megnini'' Dugès, 1883 *'' Otobius sparnus'' Kohls & Clifford, 1963

References

Acari genera Argasidae {{acari-stub