APONON^iA 



niTRODUCTION 



African Aponomma ticks, small, eyeless parasites of large 

 snakes and of monitor lizards (Varanus spp.)> sre seldom rep- 

 resented in collections. They axe markedly host-specific and 

 rarely feed on animals other than their normal hosts. 



Originally considered as Amblyomma , species of the genus 

 Aponomma are now treated as a separate generic offshoot from 

 Amblyomma . In this genus the eyeless condition is considered 

 by some to have resulted from disuse since certain members feed 

 under the host's scales. Parallel instances also occur among 

 those Amblyomma ticks that have indistinct or vestigial eyes 

 and that parasitize scaly hosts. This interpretation might hold 

 for those Aponomma species that attach below snakes' scales but 

 may hardly account for the eyeless condition of others attacking 

 only scaleless lizards. Possibly Aponomma ticks became adapted 

 to lizards as a concomitant to the loss of vision. 



The biology of aponoramas is poorly known. Adults and nymphs 

 are frequently found on the same host. 



The nomenclature of the few African species has been confused 

 until the recent works of Theiler (1945A,b). >fost African spec- 

 imens are now easily identified to species. More recently, Santos 

 Dias (1955c) has redescribed the type materiaJ. of A. ochraceum 

 Neumann, 1901, from Tanganyika and Zanzibar, and oT A. fraud Tgerum 

 Schulze, 1935 > from a host, Varanus griseus , presuraeH to have come 

 from North Africa.* 



*V. griseus ranges over the entire northern Sahara region, reach- 

 ing the Mediterranean only in southern Tunisia, Libya, Eind Egypt, 

 and extends to the Central Provinces of India (Loveridge, corres- 

 pondence). The sovirce of the type material of A. fraudigerum , 

 Fuhlsbuttelterrarium, probably refers to the grounds of an animal 

 dealer at Fuhlsbuttel, a suburb of Hamburg, and the collector, Karl 

 Peter, is probably not the famous African explorer but rather the 

 animal dealer (Theiler, correspondence). 



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