in R. capensis ). The body margin is regularly rounded or slight- 

 ly "Bulging posterior of the eyes*. Lateral grooves are deep, 

 extending from usually clearly-marked pseudoscutum to margin 

 between second and third festoon. The posteromedian groove is 

 long and, narrow (possibly wider and sometimes shorter in R. 

 capensis ) ; paramedian grooves are narrow. A small dorsal^hump 

 of coxa I is visible. The basis capituli is nearly twice as 

 wide as long; lateral angles are at the basal third and acute. 

 The color is dark brown (usually light brown in R. capensis ) to 

 black. Adanal shields are of the widely triangular type with 

 rounded junctures and margins and a slightly emarginate inner 

 margin. 



The wide, glossy scutal periphery and the numerovis, regular 

 scutal punctations are striking. 



Females ; This sex has a similarly wide, glossy border of 

 the dark brown or black scutum, with but few, small p\inctations 

 outside the definite lateral grooves, which extend the full 

 length of the scutxim. The scutum is, therefore, qiiite distinctive. 

 This feature, together with the roxmded scutal margin (sometimes 

 slightly indented posterior of the eye), nimerous, uniformly large 

 punctations in the central field and a few small punctations 

 anteriorly, and scutal length (only slightly wider than long) 

 rather easily separates R. compositus from the female of R. 

 capensis (which has puncTations reaching the lateral scutal 

 margin, slightly greater scutal width, and numerous small punc- 

 tations irregularly scattered among fewer large punctations). 

 CervicsQ. grooves are short and deep. Females are about 7.5 mn. 

 long and 5.0 mm. wide, scut\am about 2.2 mm. long, and 2.3 mm. 

 wide. 



Note ; In the Sudan tick fauna there should be little dif- 

 ficulty in determining R. compositus . The criteria separating this 

 species from R. capensi's have been included above because of the 



•According to Santos Dias (1949F) the body outline of R. capensis 

 bulges more than in R. compositus (= R. ayeri ) jvist posterior of 

 the eyes. This is not necessarily true in nonrobust specimens. 



-628- 



