43 



us is characteristic of the Ixodichv'. covers the entire dorsum, while 

 that of the female is restricted to a small area above the rostrum. 

 The adult bout tick is seldom found on bushes or grass, and it appears 

 that it seeks a host solely from the ground. The male takes up a 

 position independent of the female, and after several days, generally" 

 four or live, he makes known ))y straightening his body and waving 

 his legs when one of the opposite sex approaches him that he is 

 prepared for a mate. The female, without having previously' fed, 

 searches about until an eligible male is found, and on finding one 

 embraces him and installs herself on the skin with her ventrum 

 opposed to his. When an unpaired eligible male is wanting the female 

 may attach herself by a mated couple, but she rarely settles down dis- 

 tant from one of the other sex, and her evident object in settling by a 

 couple is to secure the male after the other female leaves. In about 

 eight days from affixing herself to a host, or longer if a mate is not at 

 once secured, the female becomes fully distended with blood and drops. 

 The male becomes somewhat thicker in bod}^ but no longer or wider, 

 and appears to subsist not on blood but on products of suppuration in 

 the wound he makes. He may remain for many months in the one 

 position and mate successively with a number of females. One speci- 

 men under observation has been attached over seven months. The two 

 sexes are produced in a]3proximately even numbers, but the males 

 appear to predominate, owing to their longer attachment. 



How copulation is effected has not been determined with certaintj^. 

 It is conjectured that the female protrudes an organ by invagination, 

 which is brought into intimate contact with the sexual orifice of the 

 male. Mr. Claude Fuller, the Natal entomologist, called my attention 

 to the probability of this unique means for intercourse with respect to 

 another loxdid, and since I have repeatedly witnessed the quick retrac- 

 tion of a protruded organ by the female of the bont and several other 

 Ixodidi^ when separating couples. The invagination may be similar 

 to that which occurs in the process of oviposition. The male orifice 

 in the bont and some other species is beneath a rounded, lid-like shield 

 which opens forward, and when males have been suddenly parted from 

 their mates this shield has ofttimes been observed to be raised. 

 Females do not appear able to complete their engorgement until the}- 

 have mated. 



The bont tick infests cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and ostriches, and 

 probably various other animals, as on the evidence of farmers it is not 

 infrequent on old or weakened buffaloes and other kinds of horn(^d 

 game. It attaches itself to man occasionally, and now and again is 

 found on the barnyard fowl. Curiously, mules seem to become less 

 infested than horses. That it may mature and reproduce when reared 

 on horses, cattle, and goats has 1)een established, and that it may fully 

 engorge itself, both as a larva and nymph, on ostriches and afterwards 



