44 



successfully uiolt has also been affirmed. The adults are rarely found 

 on the back or high on the flanks of the animals. They get most 

 numerous on the relatively hairless parts under the shoulders, between 

 the thighs, about the genitalia and anus, and on the udder. The larva? 

 and nymphs prefer the same situations, but a few also get on to the 

 back and flanks; of all parts they appear to prefer the feet. The 

 adults are considered responsible for the formation and spread of 

 sores. Such sores on calves may involve and destroy the teats. So 

 serious is this evil that on some farms a milch cow with a sound udder 

 is exceptional. 



All stages of the bont tick may fast many months while awaiting a 

 host. Larvas have remained alive fully seven months in a cork- 

 stoppered bottle, and a single adult an equally long time. Females 

 forcibly detached from a host without injuring the rostrum may sur- 

 vive and lay fertile eggs, even if only half engorged. Males thus 

 detached rapidly lose vitality and generally succumb within three 

 days, but w^hile they have life they lose no opportunity to again 

 attach themselves, and do not hesitate to then attack even the hand of 

 a man. The method of piercing the skin may be easily followed in 

 the case of such specimens. 



By a carefully conducted experiment the l)ont tick has been found 

 by the writer to transmit the heart-water disease alluded to in the 

 opening paragraph. Larvw were reared on diseased goats. As 

 nymphs these ticks were placed on healthy goats and the disease pro- 

 duced. In one instance ten ticks transmitted the infection. An 

 account of the experiment is given in the Cape Agricultural Journal 

 for Ma}^ 24, 1900. It appears probable that the bont tick may also com- 

 miuiicate " redwater,'" the disease known in America as Texas fever. 

 A cow purposeh" infested with a few specimens which came from a 

 redwater area contracted the disease when no other possible source 

 of infection appeared present. The circumstances surrounding the 

 incident are given in the writer's annual report for 181*!) (Report of 

 Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, Cape of Good Hope). 



THE BONT LEG TICK. 



- The second largest common South African tick is llyalotinna (egyp- 

 tius Audouin. The Dutch colonists know it as ""Bontepooten,''' a 

 term suggested ])y bands of white on the legs of the adults, and from 

 this term is taken thc^ English colonists' name here adopted. This 

 species is found all over Cape C/olony. but is best known in the dry. 

 inland districts. It occurs in other parts of Africa and elsewhere. 

 The fully engorged female sometimes measures four-tifths of an inch 

 in length and over a half inch in width. The life cycle has not been 

 traced, but scattered observations indicate that the molting and host- 

 securing habits are similar to those of Amhiyomma hrhnemn. The 



