45 6 ARACHNIDA ACARINA . chap. 



need be, on vegetable sap, but further investigations have quite 

 dispelled this view. 



The suspected connection between the North American Tick, 

 Boophilus annulatus, and the cattle disease known as Texas fever 

 or " red water," since clearly proved by the researches of Smith 

 and Kilborne, led to the careful investigation of the life-history 

 of that creature, and this was undertaken by Curtice.^ 



The female Ticks laid eggs a few days after dropping off the 

 cattle, egg-laying lasting a week or more. . The eggs took from 

 three to five weeks to hatch, and the larvae attached themselves 

 to cattle, on which they remained a fortnight, becoming mature 

 and fertilised before they again sought the ground. The whole 

 cycle occupied a time varying from six to ten weeks, a period 

 apparently much exceeded by some members of the family. 



Lounsbury ^ has recently made out the life-history of the 

 South African " Bont " tick, Amblyomma hebracum. 



The eggs are deposited in the soil, ten to twenty thousand 

 eggs in all being laid by one female. The larvae climb neigh- 

 bouring plants and seize passing animals. After the third day 

 of attachment they begin to distend, and they generally fall off, 

 fully distended, on the sixth day, immediately seeking a place of 

 concealment, where they become torpid. Under natural con- 

 ditions the nymph does not emerge for at least eleven weeks, 

 and then it behaves in the same way as the larva, again attach- 

 ing itself to an animal for six days. A new time of torpidity 

 and concealment ensues, again of at least eleven weeks' duration, 

 when the final moult takes place and the mature tick emerges. 

 The males at once attach themselves to animals, but the females 

 hesitate to fix themselves, except close by a male. For four 

 days after fixation the male appears to exercise no attraction 

 for the female, but after that period he shows great excitement 

 at her approach. She, however, does all the courting, the male 

 remaining fixed in the skin of the host. After pairing, the 

 female distends greatly, attaining her maximum size (nearly one 

 inch in length) in about a week, when she lets go and descends 

 to the earth to lay eggs. If unmated, she detaches herself 

 within a week, and seeks another host. Oviposition lasts from 



' "The Biology of the Cattle Tick," Journ. Compar. Med. and Vet. Archives, 

 1891, p. 313, 



^ Entomolofjical News (Philadelpliia), vol. xi., Jan. 1900. 



