BOOPh I LUS 



INTRODUCTION 



Boophilus ticks are practically unique in that their entire 

 life cycle from larva to engorged, mated adult is confined to a 

 single host. Females drop to the ground to oviposit. This single- 

 host type of life cycle has numerous biological advantages. It 

 also allows for particularly easy control by dipping infested 

 animals, a benefit partially negated by the development of boophilid 

 strains resistant to chemicals. 



The boophilid type of life cycle eliminates danger-ridden 

 periods between two or three different kinds of hosts, possibly 

 in inhospitable areas and for indefinite periods. The predilection 

 of these ticks for large domestic animals particularly favors wide- 

 spread dispersal and survival, not only within a continent but also 

 from continent to continent on imported hosts. 



Cattle are the chief hosts throughout the world, horses, other 

 domestic stock, and wild antelopes and deer axe less frequently 

 attacked. Other wild animals are uncommonly infested. The veter- 

 inary importance of Boophilus ticks is considerable and they are 

 suspect as reservoirs of some human disease pathogens. 



Collectors who wish to be assured of accurate identification 

 of their boophilid material should make every effort to obtain 

 long series and to find the small, yellowish males as well as the 

 heavier, more conspicuous, podshaped females. 



Two of the three species presently recognized in this genus 

 occur in the Sudan. One of these, Boophilus decoloratus (Koch, 

 ISZtA), is endemic and ranges widely throughout African areas with 

 relatively high rainfall and with some shrub cover; it is well 

 known practically everywhere on the continent south of the great 

 northern deserts and semideserts. 



The second species is B. annulatus (Say, 1821 ) (= B. congo - 

 lensis I4inning, 193A), African populations of which cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from the famed American Texas fever vector, B. armulatus. 

 This species is poorly known, more restricted, and less common m 

 the Ethiopian Faunal Region than B. decoloratus and has been intro- 



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