SOME SCOTTISH IXODID/E (TICKS) 35. 



my identifications. To Dr. J. H. Ashworth I am indebted 

 for a sight of some of the foreign literature. 



Ixodes ricinus (L.) l Locally common on cattle, sheep, and deer. 

 In the immediate neighbourhood of Edinburgh it appears to be 

 scarce at the present time. Shepherds and others to whom I have 

 spoken about it, say they seldom see it except on animals that have 

 recently been brought from other parts of the country. A case in 

 point occurred in October 1905, when several were found at a dairy 

 in the vicinity on a newly bought in cow. On 2ist September 

 1906, I observed numbers on cows grazing on a moor south of 

 Callander. They were mostly affixed to the udders and adjacent 

 parts of the legs of the animals. Of four good-sized females (length 

 6 to 7 mm.) secured for examination, it was found that three had 

 the much smaller male (length just over 2 mm.) attached to the 

 ventral surface as figured by Wheler. We have here a date for the 

 coming together of the sexes, a point on which Wheler is silent. 

 In August 1906 several nymphs were got on the head of a Red 

 Deer from Argyllshire. In April 1894, near Oban, I found a large 

 replete female under a stone in a slight recess at the base of a rock, 

 where sheep were in the habit of sheltering; and in April 1902 

 another this time a "fasting" one under a stone near Aberfoyle, 

 On i gth September 1905 an adult male was found on the under- 

 side of a piece of bark lying on the ground at the top of Finlarig 

 Wood near Killin. Mr. A. E. Shipley has shown me a few larvae 

 and nymphs taken from a Red Grouse last summer. In the North 

 of England, according to Wheler, this species is known as the 

 " Grass-tick." 



Ixodes hexagonus, Leach. This species is attached chiefly to 

 Carnivores. Two forms occur, the type and the variety inchoatus, 

 Neumann. Of the former, I have a distended female which I took 

 off a Polecat (Mustela putorius) killed in Ross-shire towards the end 

 of January i 906, and half a dozen larvae from a hedgehog (Erinaceus 

 europ&us) captured near Edinburgh in June. 



The variety, or subspecies, /. //. inchoatus is a common pest on 

 dogs in many parts of the country, and well deserves the name of 

 " dog-tick." Shepherds' dogs, especially young collies, on the 

 Pentlands and Moorfoot districts are much infested with it, and I 

 have had no difficulty in obtaining any number of specimens. 

 Sporting-dogs, by being better attended to, are freer from them. So 

 far as I have seen, the parts of the host usually selected for attach- 

 ment are the neck, fore part of the back, and down the sides behind 

 the fore-legs. The following records are given chiefly for the sake 

 of the dates: April 1905, one (9) on retriever, Dalkeith ; 3rd 



1 This name is now used in preference to /. reduviits. 



