August, '17] 



HERMS: SPINOSE EAR TICK 



409 



washed the ear with peroxide and gave me the syringe and a bottle of 

 peroxide and told me to wash it a couple of times a daj^ for two or three 

 daj's. ... I used the peroxide as directed, but the noises did not 

 seem to stop and soon I concluded that they were about as be- 

 fore. . . . Finally I made up a dose of peroxide as hot as my ear 

 would stand and about the third or fourth shot with the syringe this 

 ugly thing came tumbling onto the ground, and the ear has been appar- 

 ently alright ever since. This was last Tuesday, December 9, nine or 

 ten days after the doctor did his job." 



The above letter furnishes evidence to the effect that the tick entered 

 the ear of the man while sleeping on the ground sometime between the 

 third and fifteenth of September. From what is already known of the 

 habits of the species, the tick almost certainly entered his ear as a larva. 

 The specimen which left the ear of the patient December 9 was a full 

 grown female. The time was, therefore, about nine weeks. This 

 specimen remained alive without food in a small shell vial on the 

 writer's desk until about December 1, 1916, nearly a year, during 

 which time there were no further molts. 



OVIPOSITION 



In order to ascertain the exact time expiring between the last molt 

 and the deposition of eggs, a number of females previous to the final 

 molt, were placed in Petri dishes with one or more males and kept in 

 an insectary at 26°±3° C. except female No. 3 (see table) which, after 

 about 60 days, was subjected to temperature as low as 0° C. The 

 following table shows the result of this experiment. 



Table I. — Showing Time Required between Final Molt and Oviposition, also Date of Copo-ation, NrsiBER 



OF Ova 



