In Europe, Cox (1942) states, R. s. sanguinetis commonly bites 

 man. From a review of the insignificant amount oT'supporting 

 literatiire data, this wovild appear to be an overstatement. Through- 

 out the Mediterranean basin of Europe to as far east as the Crimea 

 and Kashmir, and in Northwest Africa, various forms of the fre- 

 quently common disease, boutonneiise fever, are considered to be 

 transmitted only by the bite of this tick. However, the wide- 

 spread presence of the disease in these areas coupled iri.th the 

 few definite reports of the actual arthropod biting man, suggests 

 that our present concepts of the epidemiology of this disease may 

 eventually have to be revised. 



Interestingly enough, since the above was written, French 

 workers have theorized that transmission of boutonneuse fever 

 from dogs to man is actually usually accomplished by rubbing 

 one*s eyes after deticking dogs or by some insect, especially 

 a rediwiid or some other Heteroptera (Sigalas and Lamontellerie 

 1954). A similar theory had already been advanced by Berri (1953) 

 in Italy. While this novel approach remains to be demonstrated, 

 it suggests the r81e of the kennel tick as merely a reservoir of 

 infection or as a vector from dog to dog. This concept may explain 

 the few definite records of this species as a parasite of man, 

 even where the Mediterranean type of boutonneuse fever is common. 



Lamontellerie (195A) presents some evidence to support his 

 view that in southwestern France the kennel tick displays little 

 if any aggresiveness in attacking man, even though boutonneuse 

 fever is common. He cites some published references to indicate 

 that the tick sometimes does attack man, but most of these refer 

 to generalized or vague statements or to obviotis repetitions of 

 previously published reports. 



In Manila, since it was claimed that larval kennel ticks at- 

 tacked children, de Jesus (1939) attempted without success to 

 induce larvae to feed on two men and on two children. 



Cattle Hosts 



Reports of the incidence of R. s. sanguineus on cattle show 

 great disparity from locality to Tocality, as does the data in 

 the present collection. 



- 697 - 



