662 



ACARINA. 



adult, while the tripartite division of the body is very distinct, 

 the thorax being distinct from the head and abdomen. 



The genus Argas closely resembles Ixodes. Gerstaecker 

 states that the Argas Persicus Fisher is very annoying to trav- 

 ellers in Persia. Travellers in the tropics speak of the in- 

 tolerable torment occasioned by wood ticks, Ixodes, which, 

 occurring ordinarily on shrubs and trees, attach themselves to 

 all sorts of reptiles, beasts and cattle, and even man himself 

 as he passes by within their reach. Sometimes cases fall 

 within the practice of the physician who is called to remove 

 the tick, which is found sometimes literally buried under the 

 skin. Mr. J. Stauff'er writes me, that "on June 23d the daugh- 

 ter of Abraham Jackson (colored), playing among the leaves 



in a wood, near Springville, 

 Lancaster County, Penn., on 

 her return home complained 

 of pain in the arm. No at- 

 tention was paid to it till the 

 next day, when a raised tu- 

 mor was noticed, a small 

 portion protruding through 

 the skin, apparently like a 

 splinter of wood. The child 

 was taken to a physician 

 who applied the forceps, and 

 after considerable pain to the 

 child, and labor to himself, extracted a species of Ixodes, 

 nearly one-quarter of an inch long, of an oval form, and brown 

 mahogany color, with a metallic spot, like silver bronze, cen- 

 trally situated on the dorsal region." This tick proved, from 

 Mr. Stauffer's figures, to be without doubt, Ixodes umpunctata 

 Pack. (Plate 13, fig. 11, enlarged). It has also been found in 

 Massachusetts by Mr. F. G. Sanborn. The Ixodes albiplctus 

 Pack. (Fig. 638, adult gorged with blood, and the six-footed 

 young, with the mouth-parts of the young enlarged, and (/, a 

 foot showing the claws and sucking disc), was discovered by 

 Mr. W. J. Hays in great numbers on a moose which had been 

 partially domesticated. The females lay their eggs from the 

 first of May until the 25th of June, the "eggs being forced out 



Fig. 638. 



