Rhipicephalus is a genus of ticks in the family Ixodidae, the hard ticks, consisting of about 74 or 75 species. Most are native to tropical Africa. Species are difficult to distinguish from one another because most are quite similar, while individuals of one particular species can be quite variable. Most of the characteristics used to identify species pertain to male and immature specimens, and "females are sometimes simply impossible to identify". Many Rhipicephalus spp. are of economic, medical, and veterinary importance because they are vectors of pathogens. They transmit the pathogens that cause the animal and human diseases East Coast fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, rickettsiosis, Boutonneuse fever, Lyme disease, Q fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, and they inject a neurotoxin in their bite that leads to tick-caused paralysis. Boophilus was once considered a separate genus, but studies in the early 2000s resulted in Boophilus being made a subgenus of Rhipicephalus. Species familiar in the domestic environment include the brown dog tick (R. sanguineus).

The name Rhipicephalus is derived from the Greek word rhiphis, meaning "fan-like", and κεφαλή, kephalē, meaning "head". The two terms are related to the hexagonal basis capituli of Rhipicephalus.

Rhipicephalus bursa is a carrier of babesiosis, theileriosis and anaplasmosis in domestic animals, of the Nairobi sheep disease, and an aggressive vector of the agents of the Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever and of the Q fever.

- Rhipicephalus annulatus Say, 1821 - Rhipicephalus decoloratus Koch, 1844 - Rhipicephalus geigyi Aeschlimann & Morel, 1965 - Rhipicephalus kohlsi Hoogstraal & Kaiser, 1960 - Rhipicephalus microplus Canestrini, 1888 – southern cattle tick