THE EXTERNAL PARASITES OF THE DINGO 



{GANIS DINGO Blum.). 

 By Thos. Steel, F.L.S. 



Any information regarding the parasites infesting the above 

 animal may be of assistance in discussing the question of its 

 origin. 



In Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland, xxviii., p. 96, 1916, Dr. T. 

 Harvey Johnston has a valuable paper dealing with the endu- 

 parasites; but, so far as I am aware, nothing has been published 

 on the external parasites. Mr. R. Etheridge has dealt histori- 

 cally, and from the palrentological view-point, with the origin of 

 the dingo, in a very able paper,* in which is included a most 

 comprehensive bibliography. 



In the year 1883, while resident on the Tweed River, N.S.W., 

 I got a fresh specimen of a full-grown, pure bred male dingo, 

 which was poisoned through eating a bush rat which, in turn, 

 had taken a strychnine-bait. I collected the external parasites, 

 which have been in my possession ever since. Recently I sub- 

 mitted the fleas to the Hon. N. C. Rothschild, and the other 

 parasites to Dr. T. H. Johnston; and, from these gentlemen, I 

 have received the result, of their examination, which I now desire 

 to place on record. 



The fleas proved to be Ctetiocephdhis felis and C. canis, the 

 species commonly occurring on the domestic cat and dog, no 

 others being present. The other parasites consisted of a larval 

 tick, and a louse. Dr. Johnston reports that the larval tick is 

 apparently a new species, near Ixodes holocyclus', and that the 

 louse appears to be Trichodectus latus, or a nearly related species. 

 /. holocyclus, Dr. Johnston informs me, has, in Australia, been 

 found on man, cat, dog, cattle, horse, marsupials, and perhaps 

 reptiles ; and he considers that the specimens under review 

 belong to a related species. T. latus is not common in Australia; 

 it has been recorded from the dog (.Sydney) by Johnston and 

 Harrison, in 1912. On the dingo, I found a considerable num- 

 ber, about two dozen, but I did not get all that were present. 



Memoirs Geol. Survey N. S. Wales. Ethnological Series, No,2, 191U. 



