by Matthysse (1954- ). In Kenya and Uganda, with two rainy periods 

 each year, multiplication is faster and two or three generations 

 nay breed during a twelve months' period (Wilson 1953). 



Females engorge and oviposit dijring the wet months, larvae 

 engorge early in the dry season, and nymphs live through the dry 

 season. The periods of preoviposition and embryonic development 

 in nature should be more carefully investigated. A delay or dia- 

 pause phenomenon of some three months or more for these combined 

 periods in the rainy season appears likely. 



Ecology 



The typical seasonal cycle, as explained for Northern Rhodesia 

 by Matthysse (1954-), applies to the Sudan and other single rainy 

 season areas of Africa. Details for other areas with two rainy 

 seasons ai'e not certain, and there appears to be more overalpping 

 of different stages in such situations. Adults appear tov;ards the 

 end of the drj'" season, first males and then females. PopiiLations 

 increase in numbers and remain high through the rainy season and 

 decrease rapidly in the dry season, although a few specimens may 

 be found even then. Larvae and nymphs gradually become more 

 numerous in the dry season, and while some nymphs are found during 

 the rains they are scarce. 



Adults and nymphs are most common on the udders, scrotum, 

 flanks, dev;lap, and brisket: larvae feed on the ears and head of 

 the host (V/ilson 19483,1949). Beakbane and Wilde (1949) also 

 noted adults on the perineum and indicated means of control with 

 respect to the feeding sites of ticks infesting cattle. 



In Cameroons, larvae of this tick have been observed in im- 

 mense numbers on tall herbage along paths, waiting for a suitable 

 host to pass (Rageau 1953B). Similar, vivid remarks by Ziemann 

 (1912B) for Cameroons suggest that his observations may also have 

 referred to A. variegatum. 



"'The fully fed female of A. variegatum works her way into the 

 soil to lay her eggs, and unfed adults are freo_uently seen, v;aiting 

 for a passing host on the foliage of bushes three or four feet 

 high'" (Lewis 1934). 



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