34 HALF-AN-HOUR 



least) mythical as regards the Glutton, is the literal fact with the 

 Ticks. 



I believe they cause no irritation by their bite, for I remem- 

 ber one being found behind the ear of one of my school- 

 fellows, which, from its size, it was supposed must have been on 

 him two or three weeks at least, and he all unconscious till it was 

 discovered by the merest accident. These specimens appear 

 closely allied to Ixodes riciniis, the Dog-Tick. On comparing 

 them again, since writing the above, I feel more in doubt about 

 it. The members will have the power of judging for them- 

 selves, so far as drawings can help them, if they will compare 

 Figures i, 2, on Plate VI. It must be remembered that this 

 is an immature specinien. The Dog-Tick had arrived at full 

 maturity. There is a Tick that attacks Deer. This I do not 

 know, but should like much to see. Perhaps by making love 

 to some of the keepers at Greenwich, Richmond, or Windsor 

 Park, specimens might be procured. The antenna-like organs are 

 called ^'' palpi'''' ; the lateral portions of the rostrum, denticulate at 

 the apex, are supposed to be " mandibles " ; and the middle part, 

 with its numerous recurved barbs, is taken for a ^'■labium''' But 

 these determinations are confessedly uncertain, and would require 

 much careful study of linking forms, as also of development, ere the 

 homologies can be taken as satisfactorily settled. A member 

 seems to have made a mistake through not having had the oppor- 

 tunity of studying the creature in life, and to have taken for a claw 

 what is really a beautiful instrument of adhesion— an " arolia^^ or 

 sucker (see Fig. 5). Another point worthy of careful note is the 

 excavation of the apparently terminal joint of the limb (but which 

 is really the penultimate) for reception of the claws. This is very 

 noticeable in Argas, and still more so in the Scarlet Earth-Mite, 

 Trombidium holosericeum. It has been remarked that the Ticks 

 are blind. How, then, do they find their prey? Ah, how little 

 do we know of these wonderful things ! I remember Rymer 

 Jones quotes the beautiful expression of an Italian philosopher, 

 when trying to explain how it is that some of the humbler organ- 

 isms come towards the light, though without visual organs, and so 

 carefully avoid knocking against each other in the mazy dance, 

 that they appear palpa?^e liicem. Little more can we say with 

 regard to the Ticks, than that they must have some compensatory 

 sense highly exalted — smell, I should judge, if allowed to guess. 

 The mandibles (?) are retractile, as, indeed, is the entire rostrum. 



One at least of these specimens appears to show them in a very 

 beautiful manner, within the carapace^ which to myself is quite new 

 and very interesting. Put on the highest powers to make out the 

 beautifully delicate granulations on the dorsal shield, to which we 

 must perforce give the technical name — pro-meso-Siwd meta- notum^ — 



