Cooley & Kohls: Argasidae of N. America, etc. 



49 



Dr. Gordon E. Davis, of the Rocky Mountain Laboratory, in connection 

 with his studies on relapsing fever in Colorado in 1938, collected nymphs and 

 adults from a chipmunk nest in an old, rotten stump of a Douglas fir tree. 

 There were no animal burrow holes in the ground in this vicinity. When 

 pushed over, the stump fell into numerous pieces and with extended search 

 51 specimens were recovered. The broken stump revealed a "cache" of corn 

 in a hollow root, and nesting material of fine, dry grass well above the ground. 

 The greater number of specimens was taken from the cracks and crevices of 

 the stump material, and many of them had recently fed While the ticks were 

 being collected a chipmunk hovered around "scolding." From these details it 

 is assumed that the chipmunk was the host animal. 



Again, on June 11, 1939, Dr. Davis took 213 specimens from the cracks 

 and crevices of a rotten Douglas fir stump in Park County, Colorado. In this 

 stump there was very extensive nest material. 



The records show that this species has been taken only from higher eleva- 

 tions. Lake Tahoe has an elevation of 6225 feet. The cabin at Moscow, Idaho, 

 has an elevation of about 3000 feet, and the mountainous area in Colorado 

 where the species was taken has an elevation of approximately 8800 feet. 



Briggs (1935) states that Mark F. Boyd in a personal communication had 

 pointed out that O. talaje was identified as far back as 1914 from within a few 

 miles of Polaris (near Lake Tahoe, California) . The one remaining specimen 

 of the lot from which the record had been made was kindly sent to Dr. Davis 

 and examined by Cooley, who found it to be a specimen of O. hermsi. Thus, 

 this species was taken from near Lake Tahoe twenty years before the species 

 was described. The known records of collections of this species follow. 



Fig. 18. Distribution of Ornilltodoros hermsi Wheeler. Herms and Meyer. 



