Abstract:  Since molecular biology techniques were applied in the phylogeny of ticks in the late 20th century，changes have taken place in the nomenclature and taxonomy of ticks. However， the illustrated keys to families and genera of ticks published in China were incompetence and the taxonomic system was out of date. This article presents a manual of illustrated keys to families and genera of the superfamily Ixodoidea based on the taxonomic system proposed by Barker and Murrell （2004）， and provides a foundation for morphological identification of ticks.

Key words: Ixodoidea, Taxonomic system, Illustrated key