however, of a record of larvae from a towhee, Pipilo 
erythrophthalmus, collected on May 14, 1951, at Zion, 
a northeastern Illinois town near the Wisconsin border. 
Dr. S. Charles Kendeigh, an ornithologist at the Univer- 
sity of Illinois, believed that, because of the late date, 
this towhee was a resident bird and had not recently 
arrived. It is possible that the towhee acquired the 
ticks at Zion rather than from some southern area. 
Seemingly, the larvae on the towhee survived a northern 
Illinois winter in an unfed condition. Larvae began to 
appear on rabbits in Lee County in the latter half of 
July or in August, table 2 and fig. 4. We have records 
of one earlier appearance, on June 25, 1954, in Lee 
County and one on July 5, 1946, in central Illinois, 
(INHS collection*). Larval ticks reached the peak of 
their abundance on rabbits in Lee County in August and 
September. Heavy concentrations of larvae on rabbits 
ended abruptly in late October or early November, their 
disappearance coinciding with the beginning of deep 
frosts and colder weather. 
*|llinois Natural History Survey collection, Natural Re- 
sources Building, Urbana, Illinois. 
Table 2.—Number of larvae, nymphs, and adults of the continental rabbit tick, Haemaphysalis leporis-palustris, taken from 
cottontails examined in Lee County, Illinois; also, the average number of each stage of the tick per rabbit examined. 
I Number Average Number of Ticks 
of Number of Ticks Taken Per Rabbit Examined, 
Month Year Rabbits 195 2—1954 
Examined [Larvae | Nymphs Adults Larvae Nymphs Adults 
January 1952 = - = - 
1953 9 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 
1954 1 0 0 0 
February 1952 ~ _ - - 
1953 113 0 0 1 0.0 0.0 0.1 
1954 40 0 0 20 
March 1952 — _ — - 
1953 1l 0 89 123 0.0 8.0 11.2 
1954. = = = me 
April 1952 - = = = 
1953 5 0 14 133 0.0 2.8 26.6 
1954 = = Es = 
May 1952 4 0 2 6 
1953 12 0 195 104 0.0 123) 6.9 
1954 — - _— _ 
June 1952 52 0 36 221 
1953 9 0 17 142 0.01 1.5 6.7 
1954 6 1 50 87 
July 1952 13 0 0 2 
1953 63 852 26 17 10.6 0.4 2.5 
1954 4 0 6 23 
August 1952 15 260 39 3 
1953 8 173 5 7 19.6 4.0 0.4 
1954 &) 116 69 2 
September 1952 77 2,433 922 1 
1953 _ — - — 31.6 12.0 0.01 
1954 _ = i es 
October 1952 74 i 64 
1953 72 388 957 
1954 19 117 146 
November 1952 37 6 ll 
1953 38 21 63 
1954 26 11 15 
December 1952 = = a 
1953 2 0 0 
1954 = = = 
TOTAL (eae | 4,385 [ 2,726 
