**7. Conclusion**

Ticks parasitize a wide variety of vertebrates around the world such as amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds, including humans. Although there are a variety of studies of parasitism by ticks on animals and humans in the different ecoregions of Brazil, in the Amazon biome they are scarce and fragmented. Because of this, it is possible to infer that the diversity of ticks in the Brazilian Amazon is underestimated. In the Amazon, amphibians and reptiles were important hosts for *A. rotundatum*, *A. dissimile* and *A. humerale*, hard ticks common in these hosts in other regions of the country. Birds and mammals, on the other hand, proved important for the maintenance and dispersion of over 30 species of hard ticks in the Amazon, but there are still many gaps between hosts and their ticks in this region. Interestingly, immature *A. humerale* appears to be frequent on wild birds in this biome. No soft ticks have been reported parasitizing amphibians, reptiles, birds and/or non-flying mammals (except for a single record of *Ornithodoros* sp. on *P. flavus*), possibly due to scarcity of more studies in this biome. Some studies show that bats seem to have an important role spreading soft tick populations along Amazonian caves and that the diversity described for this group is still very poor. Two vector species of spotted fevers were found in the Amazon biomes parasitizing humans (*A. sculptum* and *A. ovale*). However, to date, there are no reports of BSF in humans in the region. Finally, it is of paramount importance that researchers (acarologists and epidemiologists) direct their attention to the Amazon biome, in order to fill the numerous existing gaps in the diversity of ticks in Brazil and prevent possible outbreaks of diseases transmitted by these ectoparasites to animals and humans.
