April, '13] TOWNSEND: VERRUGA AND TICKS 211 



It may also be mentioned that a very few specimens of nymphs 

 have been taken on cattle in the Northwestern States. 



Practical Application 



The recommendations made in Bulletin 105 of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology for the control of this tick in the Bitter Root Valley have been 

 strengthened by subsequent investigations. None of the recent 

 findings indicate that any modification of the plan of eradication, as 

 recommended in that publication, is necessary. 



It might be mentioned, however, that by taking into consideration 

 the maximum developmental periods and longevity of stages it would 

 not be cause for surprise if living adults, developed from overwintered 

 larvae or unengorged nymphs, be found in pastures on the fourth spring 

 after beginning dipping or destruction of ticks by other methods on 

 domestic animals. It would be necessary, of course, that small wild 

 animal hosts of the immature stages be present during this time. That 

 this four-year maximum period will ever be attained is a very remote 

 possibility since it has been found that the longevity and vitality of 

 nymphs and adults are lessened if the previous stages (larva and 

 nymph, respectively) are not fed until nearly dead from starvation. 

 ]\Ioreover, it is hardly possible for one group of ticks successively to 

 attain the limit of longevity in each stage before finding hosts. 



THE POSSIBLE AND PROBABLE ETIOLOGY AND TRANS- 

 MISSION OF VERRUGA FEVER 



By Charles H. T. Townsend, Entomologist to the Peruvian Government, Lima, Peru 



Es tierra muy caliente y enferma especialmente de imas verrugas rnuy enconadas 

 que 7iacen en el rostro y otros miemhros, que tienen muy hondas las raices de /Jeor 

 calidad que las bubas. 



— Agtjstin de Zarate, A.D. 1545. 



In certain more or less restricted valleys on the Pacific slope of the 

 central Peruvian Andes there exists today a disease known as ver- 

 ruga. From the earliest times the origin of this disease has been 

 regarded as a mystery. At the time of the arrival of the Spanish 

 conquerors verruga appears to have been much more widespread than 

 at present, extending north into Ecuador. The quotation from Zarate 

 refers to the Ecuadorian coast region. Today verruga is confined, so 

 far as known, to Lima, Ancachs and Libertad departments, between 8° 

 and 13° south latitude. 



Dr. David Matto, Editor-in-Chief of the Cronica Medica of Lima, 

 states that verruga has undeniably existed in the quebradas of the 

 Rimac from the most remote times. He argues that the disease was 

 known to the ancient inhabitants of Peru, since the native word 

 "kceepo" applied to the verruga warts is distinct in root and meaning 



