In Palestine, Nicholson (1919) and Dunlop (1920) attributed 

 human relapsing fever to bites of A. persicus . Their reports 

 were based entirely on circumstantial evidence ^cf . also Balfoiir 

 (1920A,B), Woodcock (1920), MacKenzie (l920), etc_.7. Experimental 

 evidence negates this probability. 



Members of my staff and I on several occasions have questioned 

 people who spend much time in heavily infested parks and houses in 

 and near Cairo without finding anyone who acknowledged being bitten. 



Apparently reliable accoimts of A. persicus infesting human 

 huts in which chickens are also kept, "and not infrequently biting 

 persons, are those of Sergent and Foley (1910,1922,1939) from kL. 

 geria. Natives there refer to fleas and to the fowl argasid by 

 the same name. Although the ticks are frequently associated with 

 cases of human relapsing fever, they were proven by these observers 

 to have a negative role in the transmission of spirochetes causing 

 the disease. 



There are a few scattered, apparently authentic reports of A. 

 persicus biting man outside of Africa. One such, a vivid descrip- 

 tion enhanced by illustrations of the tick and of dark weals where 

 the human victim was bitten, has been reported from Romania by 

 Ciurea and Stephanescou (1929). The attacks occurred inexplicably 

 in the upper stories of a new concrete apartment house and no 

 chickens or pigeons were known to have been associated with the 

 buildings. 



With regard to the lively accomt of attacks by "A. persicus " 

 on indigent persons in Chile (Porter 1928), see A. reflexus , p. 77. 



Reptile and Amphibian Hosts 



Although A. persicus always shows a predilection for avian 

 blood, it will"feed on toads if the skin of these animals is warmed, 

 according to Galli- Valeric (1911B). The blood is probably toxic 

 for the ticks die afterwards. 



The record of A. persicus from a tortoise in Iran (l-lichael 

 1899) is most probably based on misidentification or incorrect 

 or incomplete specimen labelling. 



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