Ixodes eldaricus Djaparidze, 1950 (Ixodidae) on migrating birds - Reported first time in Poland

During the ornithological “Operation Baltic” on the Hel Peninsula (the Baltic Sea coast in Poland) the first case of transfer to Poland of ticks of the species Ixodes eldaricus Djaparidze, 1950, on Prunella modularis (one female tick) and Erithacus rubecula (two males and one female tick). P. modularis and E. rubecula have not previously been recorded among the hosts of this tick species. Although the natural populations of I. eldaricus are very distant from Poland, it should be taken into account that this and other species of ticks may be transferred every year on migratory birds in the southern part of Central Europe and further north. Each case requires faunistic observation and epidemiological and morphological studies to exclude diagnostic confusion between very similar morphology in specimens of the genus Ixodes.