46 



adult female, too, does not usually wander far. The sexes look much 

 alike at first despite the structural differences. The mating- habits arc 

 still in doubt, but numerous females have been observed to have set- 

 tled alone and to have later ])een joined by males. Dating- from the 

 attachment of the larva the females begin to drop in about twent}"- 

 four days, and most of them are olf by twenty-eight. It takes but a 

 short time, only a week or ten days in midsummer to prepare the 

 dropped females f or oviposition and within the limits of three sununer 

 months one life cycle may be completed and a second begun. Larvaj 

 have been observed to remain on grass tops awaiting a host through 

 high winds, rains, and light frosts. Over 2,000 were counted at the 

 top of a single spear of grass. 



Cattle, horses, sheep, and goats are attacked by the blue tick. It 

 matures on all in numbers, but the cattle acquire it in greatest abund- 

 ance. The progeny of specimens from a horse have been reared on a 

 cow; that of specimens from a cow on a goat, and that of specimens 

 from a goat on another goat. The young ticks appear practically 

 indifl'erent to what part of the animal they attach, yet wander more 

 when liberated on a beast than do the larvw of some other species. 



THE RED TICK. 



The red tick, Bhipieephalus erertsl Neumann, takes its common 

 name from the coloi- of the adults of both sexes prior to engorgement. 

 It has a wide distribution in South Africa and all classes of farm 

 animals are attacked by it. Its attack is generally regarded as of no 

 consequence, but some intelligent farmers attribute a temporary 

 paralysis of the limbs of sheep and goats to it; when the particular 

 tick responsible for the trouble is removed, an afflicted animal quickly 

 recovers. It is rarely that an ox, sheep, goat, or horse running on 

 unimproved grazing ground in Cape Colony is entirely free of this 

 species of tick. Although the red tick is classified as congeneric with 

 the blue, the habits of the two are very dissimilar. The larv* of the 

 red tick have a decided preference for the inner surface of the ears, and 

 comparatively few are found elsewhere on an animal. After three or 

 four days feeding ceases, and about the seventh day the nymph appears, 

 as with the blue tick; but with repletion in the nymphic stage the tick 

 withdraws its rostrum, drops, and molts on the ground, after the 

 manner of the bont tick. The adults, in order to obtain a hold on a 

 host, habitually rest at the top of a spear of grass or at the end of a 

 twig and extend their forelegs when disturbed. This habit, though 

 common to the larvie of all the Ixodidw mentioned in these notes, has 

 been observed only in the adult of the red tick and two congeneric 

 species, B. cajM'nsi.s Koch and H. hxrsa (?). Only hairless parts of an 

 animal attract the adults, and the region adjacent to the anus draws 

 more of them than all the remaining surface of the body, Partic- 



