IV. 



Ticks. 



IN many parts of the world people are becoming considerably 

 excited just now on the subject of Ticks. It appears to be 

 specially the case in some of the West Indian Islands, but is not by 

 any means confined to that locality. This is not altogether an 

 unusual occurrence, for the little animals are apt to increase in 

 numbers and to bring themselves vigorously into public notice, and 

 they are always more free than welcome. When I say " Ticks," I 

 am using the word in its more scientific sense, as signifying the 

 Ixodidae, a family of Acarina ; not in the popular sense of almost 

 any objectionable small creature which bites and sucks. Thus, for 

 instance, the "Sheep-tick," which is the dread of our farmers, is not 

 only not an Acarid, but it is not even an Arachnid ; it is, if one may 

 be excused for using an apparent contradiction, a wingless dipterous 

 insect, somewhat closely related to the curious Nydevibia of the bat, 

 and more closely still to the winged Oynithomyia of birds. 



The true Ixodes, however, can make himself quite sufficiently 

 unpleasant without having also to bear the evil reputation of others. 

 No one whose experience is confined to England, and who has only 

 on rare occasions found a minute black speck firmly fixed in his arm 

 when he returns from beating ferns for insects, or has found that his 

 dog has come out of bushes and long grass possessed of somewhat 

 more life than he carried in, has any idea of what a nuisance these 

 creatures can be in tropical or semi-tropical countries. In the West 

 Indies, parts of South America, the southern part of North America, 

 parts of India, &c., they breed in the long grass and bush in countless 

 numbers and of numerous species. Any large vertebrate visiting the 

 infested locality in the Tick season without being most carefully 

 protected, is apt to emerge covered with a quantity of Ixodidae, which 

 in the case of man is very unpleasant, and in that of animals, which 

 cannot so readily rid themselves of the pest, is even dangerous, both 

 from irritation and, in the case of cattle continually visiting the 

 infested districts, from loss of blood. 



The bite of an Ixodes in England is practically painless to most 

 people, but it must be remembered that a small wound which would 

 not inflame here may do so in a hotter climate, and the matter is 

 generally greatly aggravated by the means taken to get rid of it. If 

 the Acarid were allowed to suck its fill, it would then withdraw the 



