Herein we report the first occurrence of Ixodes ariadnae in Slovakia. One engorged female was collected from a greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) in the spring of 2025. Identification of the collected I. ariadnae specimen was based on morphological characters and confirmed by sequencing COI genes and mitochondrial 16S rDNA. Sequences showed > 99-100% similarity to specimens collected in other European countries. This expands the known range of I. ariadnae and calls for the further investigation into its host associations, prevalence, and potential role in tick-borne pathogen transmission among European bats.
Lipinský et al. (Tue,) studied this question.