Does Aponomma varanensis (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) occur on the Taiwanese mainland?

On 15 July 1976, teams from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2, Taipei, Taiwan, made 3 collections of ticks from beneath the dorsal scales of the Taiwan stink snake, Elaphe carinata, at Makung in the Penghu Islands, which lie astride the Tropic of Cancer in the Taiwan Strait between southern mainland China and Taiwan proper. These ticks were later determined to be Aponomma varanensis (Supino, 1897), but this discovery was never published, and no member of the genus Aponomma has heretofore been reported from Taiwan or any of its outlying islets. Because suitable hosts, including E. carinata, are abundant on Taiwan and because A. varanensis is widely distributed in tropical Asia, it is argued that this or a related species of Aponomma will one day be found on the Taiwanese mainland.