TICKS. 203 



bad reputation, and were known by the name of " Guerib-guez," or 

 " strangers beware " ; while at Miana there were great differences of 

 opinion, some people — including most doctors — thinking that they 

 were harmless, and that the fevers came from the climate, while 

 others — including most natives — maintained that the fevers arose 

 from the bites of the Acarids. Tholozan sent home specimens from 

 both places. Megnin tried them on rabbits, and also tried one on his 

 own arm ; this bit freely after its four years' fast, and became deep 

 purple instead of dull yellow. For an hour after the creature had left 

 his arm, Megnin felt as if it were still sucking ; for a fortnight there 

 was considerable itching ; and six weeks elapsed before the arm was 

 absolutely well. There was not any fever or general illness, but may 

 it not be possible that in a hot and unhealthy climate the wound 

 would have inflamed more, and possibly rendered the patient more 

 susceptible to the unfavourable local conditions, so that there might 

 be some slight foundation for the doubtless greatly exaggerated 

 stories of the earlier writers ? 



The power of living without food for a long time doubtless 

 explains such cases as the so-called " Canterbury Tick," really Argas 

 refiexus, found in the timbers of the roof of Canterbury Cathedral in a 

 place then not accessible to birds, but where it had probably been 

 left by some pigeon years before. 



The food of the Ixodidae is, however, not supposed to be wholly 

 animal. It has usually been considered that they are primarily 

 vegetable feeders who like to indulge in a more generous diet when 

 they have an opportunity, as is believed to be the case with gnats. 

 Of the millions of mosquitoes which in the short Norwegian summer 

 often thicken the air of the Tromsdal — a wild valley within the 

 Arctic Circle, practically uninhabited either by man or probably by 

 beast — how few are likely ever to taste blood ? Similarly, it is 

 believed, so far as our present knowledge goes, that the young Ixodes, 

 and probably the old ones also in most instances, feed primarily on 

 vegetable juices, only attaching themselves to animals as occasion 

 offers. It seems certain that the eggs are not laid on the animal ; 

 the female when her voracious appetite is at last satisfied, i.e., when 

 she cannot contain any more, drops off, and the nutriment serves to 

 supply the store of nourishment to a great mass of eggs which she 

 produces, and deposits on the grass and herbage. The place and 

 mode of deposition is somewhat curious, inasmuch as she places the 

 eggs one by one in front of her in a pile, or round ball, which gradually 

 becomes almost as large as the mother-7;^o^^s. It is probably this 

 position of the eggs which gave rise to the idea held by some of the 

 earlier writers, that the Ixodes laid their eggs through the mouth- 

 opening ; the fact being that the genital opening is very near the 

 mouth, and the position during "oviposition such that the mouth is 

 not readily seen. 



The structure of the mouth-organs, which enable the possessor 



