Nymphal hosts ; The Sudan hosts appear to be the only ones 

 recorded for nymphs. These are Grant's gazelle, Roosevelt's 

 hartebeest, rarely domestic cattle and dogs, and greater bustard. 

 Nymphs were identified by Dr. G. Theiler. 



BIOLOGY 



A. lepidvim is common in many of the semiarid regions of East 

 Africa. It inhabits economically marginal areas and is not known 

 to be a vector of animal or hamaji disease pathogens. Therefore, 

 not even the industrious veterinarians (in Africa they do most 

 of the legwork on ticks for zoologists and for medical researcii- 

 ers) have investigated this tick's life history. It would, 

 however, be surprising indeed to find that the life cycle were 

 any other than the three-host type. J. B. Walker reports (cor- 

 respondence) that larvae fed on a rabbit did not molt but that 

 a few larvae in her laboratory have engorged on pigeons. 



In his interesting and important ecological survey of cer- 

 tain tick vectors of East and Central Africa, Wilson (1953) has 

 noted the common occurrence of A. lepidum in the Karamoja area, 

 the driest district of Uganda. Wilson includes this species in 

 his discussion of the R. pravus _ A. gemma association, reviewed 

 herein on page (cf , also A. variegatum , page 68l). ^These 

 sections should be consulted to obtain a better impression of 

 what is now known of the ecology of A, lepidum . 7 Other species 

 associated with it in Karamoja are rT e. evertsi, H. rufipes, aiid 

 H. truncatum . ~ " "" 



For additional background, the following biological informa- 

 tion, as ■written in the manuscript before Wilson's (1953) paper 

 became available, remains of value. 



Lewis (1939A) considered A. lepidum to be a desert species 

 but, on the contrary, it appears to prefer more arid savannah 

 country and, to some limited extent, semidesert regions. In 

 Uganda it is most common in dry thorn country (Wilson 1950C). 

 Although Sudan cattle bound for the Cairo abattoir constantly 

 carry the East African bont tick through the deserts and cul- 

 tivated riparian areas of northern 3udan and Egypt, this parasite 



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