Drake-Brockman (1913B,1920; stated that this tick is found in 

 or near huts in British Somaliland but that it does not bite man 

 there. From the United Provinces of India, Sen (1938) noted A. 

 persicus '"on bed (presumably can infest man>". '"This species~was 

 reported from Quetta (India) where it was stated to infest houses 

 and to bite human beings'" (Warburton 1907). As stated above, 

 Hoffman (1930), remarked that in Mexico A. persicus may bite man 

 and animals in the absence of fowls, but"details were not provided. 

 In Korea, Kbbayashi (1925) '"examined certain specimens of Argas 

 persicus said to have stung meri". — — 



Old Iranian (Persian) reports that A, persicus is such a pest 

 of human beings that whole villages have'had to be mjved, so wide- 

 ly quoted from Nuttall et al (1908) who reviewed the earlier liter- 

 ature, hardly bear contemporary repetition. The evidence in all 

 cases is circumstantial and based on hearsay. That these fables 

 should have gained the stature of serious fact in mast books of 

 medical entomology is a reflection on methods of textbook fact- 

 finding. One writer has even gone so far as to throw in for good 

 measure a large part of the African continent as a scourged area. 

 Since 1890 there has been hardly a single published eyewitness or 

 corroborated report of Argas persicus biting human beings that has 

 not referred merely to is^lSted instances. Though some bites have 

 been described as painful, only one or two have been shown to cause 

 other sequelae. 



Twentieth century Iran has not provided evidence to corrobo- 

 rate the early apparent misrepresentations concerning the fowl 

 tick. Carre (1909), in reporting on the frequency of larval at- 

 tacl^ on chickens in Teheran did not mention that man is attacked. 

 Harold (1922) expressed the belief that Ornithod oros lahorensis 

 Neumann is actually responsible for pai ni'ul bUes attribuiec! io A. 

 persicus in Iran /-cf. also Harold (1920)/. Dr. Baltazard, Dire"^ 

 tor oT^he Pasteur Institute in Teheran,-an outstanding student 

 of argasid ticks and of their disease relations, informs me that 

 he knows of no troubles from A. persicus in Iran so far as human 

 beings are concerned. Delpy Tl9^%) observed large numbers of A. 

 |ersicus and 0. lahorensis in and around peasant houses and sta^Bles 

 near I'ersepolis m Iran but he did not mention bites of either spe- 

 cies.^ Delpy and Kaweh (1937), however, record an actual observaT^ 

 no+o/« ?^ ^ laboratory person who, when washing his hands, 

 noted a large nymphal fowl tick biting him. The bite was painless 



SLtal^StterbJTS'att^ac^^^' '' ^^^^' de^nstrated to have 



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