The sorting out of these host records awaits a thoroiigh biOb- 

 logical and taxonomic study on this interesting group of ticks. 



BIOLOGY 



(See also REMARKS below) 



Life Cycle 



Lounsbury (1905*) stated that adults will not feed on goats 

 or on oxen if they have not first fed from a tortoise in an 

 earlier stage, Adiilts attached to the host before seeking the 

 other sex, unlike many other species of Amblyomma . Lounsbury 

 also provided observations on time required for each stage and 

 for feeding. These data are not abstracted here for in the light 

 of confused nomenclature it is questionable whether the species 

 with which Lounsbury worked is the same as that in the Sudan. 

 Note that Alexander (1931) was unable to induce South African 

 adults of A. marmoreTJm to feed on cattle. 



Ecology 



In the Ethiopian Faunal Region, this group of ticks occurs 

 in a variety of faunal areas. Where tortoises are common these 

 ticks are often abundant, but this incidence is by no means xmL- 

 versal in Africa. 



On tortoises, these ticks are usually deep in the host's 

 axillae and it is necessary to kill or anesthetize the animal 

 to see or secure all of the specimens. 



DISEASE RELATIONS 



Textbook statements that A. marmoreum actually has been in- 

 criminated as a vector of boutonneuse fever of man refer merely 

 to a remark that this was one of several tick species found on 

 patients. 



»See Robinson (1926). 



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