THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 21 



some of the native tribes in Rhodesia; and the Namaquas, near the Orange 

 River mouth, who have a perfect dread of it, and who will not rest in situ- 

 ations they suspect to be infested, also believe that it induces serious illness. 

 David Livingstone heard stories to the same effect from the Portuguese in 

 East Africa, and in his " Travels in South Africa," page 383, he thus 

 describes the effects of the bite, apparently as experienced by himself: 

 " These are," he says, " a tingling sensation of pain and itching, which 

 commences ascending the limb until the poison imbibed reaches the 

 abdomen, where it soon causes violent vomiting and purging. Where 

 these effects do not follow, as we found afterwards at Tete, fever sets in ; 

 and I was assured by intelligent Portuguese there that death has some- 

 times been the result of this fever." 



Now this tick, commonly known as " tampan," is spread far and wide 



in South Africa, and I am told is exceedingly common in the huts of 



natives in some parts. In the dry north-west of this colony, everybody 



seems to be acquainted with it and its bite. It is frequent at the uitspans 



(that is, places to rest the transport animals), and hence travellers nearly 



all receive its attention. But in these parts little more is thought of its 



bite than that of the bed-bug; and to my predisposed mind it has occurred 



that all the stories of serious effects come from notorious fever districts. 



Somewhat more than nine months ago I was favored with a collection of 



specimens from a Transvaal correspondent. He obtained them from an 



outhouse on his farm which had become infested simultaneously with the 



arrival of a batch of Bechuana natives from their own country. These 



tampans have been kept in a glass tube, and their long fast has made 



little difference in their appearance. They lie motionless in the dry 



earth enclosed with them and patiently await a host. Until I read Dr. 



Behr's letter, now two months ago, I had not " screwed up " sufficient 



courage to let any of the repulsive creatures repast at my expense, but 



his remarks decided me. On September 8th, I fed one in the morning 



and one in the afternoon. Both were simply placed on my arm, and 



they attended to their wants without further invitation. Neither was 



restless, but immediately scratched a hole and began. One staid on an 



hour and the other two hours. There was no sensation of pain in either 



case, but an exudation of a transparent fluid was observed to collect 



beneath the body of the tick, and the evaporation of this appeared to be 



responsible for a slight sensation of cold or numbness ; at times, too, there 



was a slight tickling. At the conclusion of the respective banquets, each 



