THE CATTLE-TICK. 



91 



iiig May and June; they hatch early in July, the "shell open- 

 ing like a clam." 



Ticks are quite numerous in Minnesota, but only in the 

 south do they become extremely troublesome to persons and 

 animals. 



THE CATTLE-TICK. 



{Boophllus hovis Ril. ) . 



This is a flat, leathery, reddish and seed-like species with 



an oblong oval body (fig. 57). When mature it reaches 



nearly half an inch in lensrth. It does not occur in Minnesota, 



Fig. 57.— Cattle-tick. Enlarged. Original, 



but is a southern and, originally, a tropical species which is 

 annually killed by frost north of the Ohio and Potomac 

 rivers. Generally speaking, the injury caused by this gigan- 

 tic mite, sucking the blood of animals, would be but small, if 

 it were not for the fact that it is the chief and perhaps the 

 only agent that spreads the "Texas Fev.er" or "Red Water." 

 This disease is caused by a microbe which enters the veins 

 and arteries of cattle and rapidly and extensively destroys 

 the red corpuscles of the^lood. The cattle-tick, which sucks 



