| In recent years, molecular techniques have been developed and applied for areas of tick-related research. The molecular data and combined with morphological characters are increasingly considered in tick taxonomic and systematic research, and the constructed phylogenetic trees can more accurately reflect the relationships among tick groups. Many changes in the nomenclature and taxonomy of ticks have to be changed, and in another hand, there also exist typographical errors or cite species names that have long since been considered to the junior synonymy. Since the limitation of geography or special host and the molecular research, the taxonomic scheme of many tick groups should be reconsidered, like the subfamily Rhipicephalinae which includes the largest number of genera (8 genera), takes the most changes, and is the most controversial group of tick subfamilies.The tick of China is diversity (about 13% species of the world). However, it is a pity that few studies about ticks are limited in species identification, fauna investigation, and preliminary biological characteristics, and this research area was broken off after 1990s. Additionally, phylogenetic evolution about ticks in China is almost blank. At present, there are many problems for the taxonomic system to be out of time, species identification etc., which temper the development of other tick research areas. Therefore, this paper researched the following areas according to the research progress of tick taxonomic and systematic research.1 Revised the list of the world's tick species by Barker and Murrell (2004), with compiling a list of 875 species (189 species in the family Argasidae, 705 species in the family Ixodidae, and 1 species in the family Nuttalliellidae), and translating the corresponding species name in Chinese. This will be useful for the understanding of world ticks.2 The taxonomic system in China has been renewed and a revision of Chinese tick species has been also taken place, resolving many problems including the out of date of taxonomic system of Chinese ticks, disorder of species names, difficulty of species identification. At present, the ticks of China consist of 117 species in the following families: Argasidae-Argas (7 species), Carios (4 species) and Ornithodoros (2 species); Ixodidae- Ixodes (24 species), Amblyomma (8 species), Haemaphysalis (44 species), Anomalohimalaya (2 species), Hyalomma (6 species), Dermacentor (12 species) and Rhipicephalus (8 species).3 According to the change of taxonomic system and the ever described mistakes about ticks, the morphological identification key of ticks was made including families, genera of Ixodid and Chinese tick species, and also the morphological characters of two species (A. helvolum and A. cordiferum) not described by Teng and Jiang (1991) before. This will be useful for the tick identification base on morphological characteristics.4 Zoogeographic distribution of ticks in China was analyzed, the results showed that the distribution zones of ticks showed either a dot or a belt shape on the map of China. The zoogeographic regions of Chinese ticks were nearly consistent with the Chinese zoogeographic division, although there were some differences. However, the accurate distribution of ticks in China still needs a deep investigation. This will be helpful to understand the tick distribution in China and to provide data for further zoological fauna analysis.5 The morphological and life cycle characteristics of Hyalomma asiaticum kozlovi were studied in detail. This will provide reliable evidence for studying the identification of three subspecies of Hyalomma asiaticum and their systematic relationships.6 The scanning electron microscope (SEM), molecular characteristics and life cycle feature of two reproductive populations of Haemaphysalis longicornis wide distributing in China, were analyzed. The results suggested even though some constant characteristics were existed between the two populations, the molecular systematic analysis suggested they should to be the same species, through comparing them with some H. longicornis groups found in other country and some related species.7 16S rDNA sequences of some Chinese ticks were amplified, and then the molecular systematic relationships among ticks were analyzed with some other species loading from GenBank. The results were as followings: (1) The systematic classifications of the genera of Ixodes and Argas should be further investigated. (2) The former genus Boophilus to be included in the genus Rhipicephalus and to be a subgenus is right. (3) Compared with other tick groups, hyalomma ticks were more closely related to the subfamily Rhipicephaline, the bootstrap value of MP and NJ was 69% and 89%, respectively. (4) Ticks of the genus Haemaphysalis were more closely related to hyalomma and rhipicephaline ticks, and dispersed on the different clades with amblyomminae ticks.8 Based on the studies above, 19 papers has been published in the journal of Veterinary Parasitology, Experimental and Applied Acarology, 2nd International Symposium on Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chinese Bulletin of Entomology, Entomotaxonomia, Acta Entomologica Sinica.
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