66 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 1 



Dr. J. B. Smith, Dr. E. P. Felt and others, supported by federal and 

 state appropriations, making preventive treatment possible. 



But it is to the Ixodoidea, or ticks, that I wish to call your attention 

 in a brief review of our present knowledge of their role in the trans- 

 mission of disease and to show that they are equally as imporant as 

 the flies and mosquitoes in the transmission of disease. The object 

 in preparing this paper is to emphasize the importance of the study 

 of their biology and to encourage a more extensive collection of them 

 by the Entomologist, within whose field of study they distinctly come. 



That the importance of the investigations of the Entomologist are 

 appreciated by the medical profession is well shown by the following 

 paragraph taken from an address before the London School of Trop- 

 ical Medicine by Sir Lauder Brunton,^^ M. D., upon ''Fleas as a Na- 

 tional Danger, ' ' namely : ' ' What is true of the G. (lossina) palpalis 

 is true of other flies also, and as ticks and bugs are likewise most im- 

 portant as carriers of diseases there really ought to be established 

 by government a chair, or, still better, an institute of scientific ento- 

 mology, well endowed and having attached to it a number of men who 

 could carry on original investigations. Such a chair, or institute, if 

 thoroughly well endowed and having money lavishly expended upon 

 it, would repay the expenditure a thousand-fold, for the study of trop- 

 ical diseases is becoming to a great extent identified with the study 

 of the insects which transmit them." 



Professor C. P. Lounsbjiry, Government Entomologist of Cape Col- 

 ony, may well be considered the pioneer in the study of the biology 

 of the ticks. Prior to 1898, at which time he commenced their study, 

 with the exception of the cattle tick, Margaropus {=Boophilus) annu- 

 latus, but little was known of their life history and habits. In speak- 

 ing of their importance and of the opportunities offered in the study 

 of this group, in a paper read before the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science^ in 1905, he said, "To my mind the ticks pre- 

 sent the more profitable field for the student, whether he be interested 

 in the systematic classification of the species, in the determination of 

 habits and metamorphoses, in experimental research in regard to their 

 transmission of diseases, or in the development of pathogenic organ- 

 isms within the body of intermediate hosts. ' ' In reviewing the status 

 of our knowledge he said, "An excellent groundwork for the classifi- 

 cation of the species has been made by Professor G. Newman in his 

 Bevision de la famille des Ixodides, which has been published in several 

 parts by the Zoological Society of France during the last ten years; 

 but very little has thus far been recorded on the internal anatomy of 



aThe numerals refer to bibliographical references at end of paper. 



