these fine records of 0. moubata. Guar is situated at approximately 

 8°50*N. and 28°30*E. The specimens were collected dioring the dry- 

 season; but for several months of the year this "Nile sponge" area 

 is a vast flooded plain. It would be interesting to know the ac- 

 tivity of the ticks at that time. 



No evidence of 0. moubata has been discovered from buildings 

 in Bahr El GhsLzal Province, but search in these places has not been 

 extensive enough to draw conclusions from this negative data. 



DISTRIBUriCai 



0. moubata is widely distributed locally throiighout East and 

 northern South Africa, and extends into the drier part of Central 

 Africa. A few specimens indicate its presence in West Africa. 

 In South Africa and elsewhere, human activities have carried the 

 eyeless tampan far from its former habitats. Asstuning, for lack 

 of evidence to the contrary, that burrow-inhabiting populations 

 and hut-inhabiting populations are identical species, it wotild 

 appear that the distributional picture of the former populations, 

 when it becomes better knovm, will be true indication of the prim- 

 itive range of 0. moubata . 



Early collecting records were summarized by Neumann (1901 ) 

 and by Merriman (1911). Some early records are under 0. savignyi 

 caecus Neumann, 1901, a synonym of 0. moubata , and for""a time 0. 

 moubata and 0. savignyi were confused by Neumann and other writers. 

 More recently, Leeson (1952) published a distribution map and 

 (1953) additional notes that have been brought up to date herein 

 (Figure a). 



The mapped distribution of tick- borne, human relapsing fever 

 in the world (American Geographical Society 1955) contains numer- 

 ous errors in the area devoted to the Ethiopian Faunal Region, 

 where 0. moubata is the only known vector, except rarely the human 

 louse .~ A large section of the Sudan is shaded to indicate the 

 presence of both tick-borne and louse-borne spirochetes _ which 

 would infer the widespread range of 0. moubata in the Sudan. This 

 is contreu:^ to the available data, presented above. The same in- 

 dications for the Yemen are based on imcritical repetition of 



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