456 ARACHNIDA—ACARINA CHAP. 
need be, on vegetable sap, but further investigations have quite 
dispelled this view. 
The suspected connection between the North American Tick, 
Boophilus annulatus, and the cattle disease known as Texas fever 
or “red water,” since clearly proved by the researches of Smith 
and Kilborne, led to the careful investigation of the life-history 
of that creature, and this was undertaken by Curtice.? 
The female Ticks laid eggs a few days after dropping off the 
cattle, egg-laying lasting a week or more. The eggs took from 
three to five weeks to hatch, and the larvae attached themselves 
to cattle, on which they remained a fortnight, becoming mature 
and fertilised before they again sought the ground. The whole 
cycle occupied a time varying from six to ten weeks, a period 
apparently much exceeded by some members of the family. 
Lounsbury” has recently made out the life-history of the 
South African “ Bont” tick, Amblyomma hebraewm. 
The eggs are deposited in the soil, ten to twenty thousand 
egys in ali being laid by one female. The larvae climb neigh- 
bouring plants and seize passing animals. After the third day 
of attachment they begin to distend, and they generally fall off, 
fully distended, on the sixth day, immediately seeking a place of 
concealment, where they become torpid. Under natural con- 
ditions the nymph does not emerge for at least eleven weeks, 
and then it behaves in the same way as the larva, again attach- 
ing itself to an animal for six days. A new time of torpidity 
and concealment ensues, again of at least eleven weeks’ duration, 
when the final moult takes place and the mature tick emerges. 
The males at once attach themselves to animals, but the females 
hesitate to fix themselves, except close by a male. For four 
days after fixation the male appears to exercise no attraction 
for the female, but after that period he shows great excitement 
at her approach. She, however, does all the courting, the male 
remaining fixed in the skin of the host. After pairing, the 
female distends greatly, attaining her maximum size (nearly one 
inch in length) in about a week, when she lets go and descends 
to the earth to lay eggs. If unmated, she detaches herself 
within a week, and seeks another host. Oviposition lasts from 
' «The Biology of the Cattle Tick,” Journ. Compar. Med. and Vet. Archives, 
1891, p. 313. 
2 Entomological News (Philadelphia), vol. xi., Jan. 1900. 
