Argas (Persicargas) persicus (Oken) has been discussed in much literature concerning parasites of domestic chickens from southern Africa. However, all samples that we have seen consist only of A. (P.) walkerae, n. sp., males, females, nymphs, and laboratory reared larvae of which are described from numerous collections from fowl houses and adjacent trees in Transvaal and Cape Province, Republic of South Africa, and in South- West Africa and Lesotho (former Basutoland). Whether A. (P.) persicus does in fact occur in southern Africa remains to be investigated. Although A. (P.) walkerae may have been introduced into South Africa on domestic fowl from an unknown source, it is likely to prove to be an endemic parasite of certain local tree-nesting or roosting birds that has successfully adapted to domestic fowl. This new species is easily distinguished in the adult and immature stages from the related A. (P.) arboreus Kaiser, Hoogstraal, & Kohls, and from the other species that have more recently been described, and remain to be described, in the subgenus Persicargus. Comparative study of the disease relationships of this and other Persicargas species is urgently required to determine biological and physiological patterns of tick-host-pathogen associations in this widely distributed subgenus.