ENTOMOLOGY 297 



Relapsing fever , which is widely distributed throughout Africa, is 

 caused by Spirochaeta spp., which find a reservoir in mammaHan 

 hosts, especially rodents, and are fi:'equently transmitted by lice 

 and ticks. Thus in Morocco, Spirochaeta duttoni is transmitted to 

 man by the tick Ornithodorus erraticus Lucas (Mathis, Durieux, and 

 Advier 1934), and spirochaetes of the Spirochaeta hispanica group 

 by lice of the genus Linognathoides. In Tunisia Spirochaeta hispanica 

 is transmitted by Ornithodorus erraticus, and in Algeria by this tick 

 and Rhipicephalus sanguineus Latr. (Nicolle, Laigret, and Sicard 

 1933 and Sergent 1933), while in French West Africa lice of the 

 genus Pediculiis are responsible for the transmission of Spirochaeta 

 recurrentis (Mathis 1931). Spirochaeta duttoni, the causal agent of 

 African relapsing fever, which occurs over the greater part of the 

 continent is also regularly transmitted by Ornithodorus moubata 

 Murr as shown by Martoglio (1931). In Uganda operations 

 against the tick in temporary buildings have shown that fumiga- 

 tion is ineffective, but good results are obtained with a special 

 spray, which can be used also against bed-bugs in permanent build- 

 ings without the necessity of sealing the rooms. 



The biting-fly, Simulium, renders life unpleasant in parts of 

 Uganda. In West Africa and almost certainly in Uganda it is 

 known to carry a pathogenic nematode. Onchocerca (Gibbins 1933 

 and 1934, Strong 1935). 



Diseases of Stock 



Of the four major specific diseases of cattle which in the past 

 have hindered the development of the stock industry in Africa, 

 two, trypanosomiasis and east coast fever, are transmitted by 

 Arthropoda. 



East Coast fever, which is caused by specific infection with Thei- 

 leria parva, a member of the piroplasm group, is widely distributed 

 from Natal to the southern part of Italian Somaliland, and extends 

 westward into the Belgian Congo, where an outbreak has been 

 described recently by Schwetz (1932). The main vector of east 

 coast fever throughout this area is the tick, Rhipicephalus appendi- 

 culatus Neumann. The life cycle of T. parva has been studied at 

 Kabete in Kenya, using R. appendiculatus as vector (Gowdry and 

 Ham 1932 and Gowdry and Danks 1933). The account of the 



