506 THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



Genus. Argas, Lalreille. 

 Argas reflexus, Fabricius, 1794. 



Syn. : Acarus reflexus, Fabricius, 1794 ; A. niarginatits, Fabricius, 1794; 

 Rhynchoprion coluniba', Hermann, 1804. 



The European marginated tick, Argas reflexus (length of male 

 4 mm., breadth 3 mm., length of female 6 to 8 mm., breadth 



4 mm.), is of a yellowish colour and has yellowish-white legs. The 

 ingested blood shows red or brown through the intestine, which is 

 provided with blind sacs. It lives in dovecots. It remains hidden 

 during the day and at night crawls on to the sleeping pigeons to suck 

 their blood. It has been observed in France, England, Italy, Germany, 

 and Russia. Persons sleeping near infected dovecots, or in apart- 

 ments formed from pigeon-lofts, are also attacked, even when the 

 room in question has not been used for sheltering pigeons for years, 

 as "marginated ticks " can live in a fasting condition for a very long 

 time. The bite sometimes gives rise to serious symptoms, such as 

 general erythema and sudden oedema. 



[This pest more often feeds on the blood 

 of man than is imagined. Blanchard states 

 that he has received them from men's clothes 

 in Strasburg. Boschulte, of Westphalia, re- 

 cords these parasites in a bedroom inhabited 

 by children and connected with a pigeon- 

 house. The children were bitten during sleep 

 on the hands and feet. The result of the bite 

 was intense itching along the nerves, the bite 

 only being marked by a red spot. In a girl 



FIG. 36 1. Argas reflexus: J 



from the dorsal surface, the of 14 Ol* 15, vesicles were formed Similar to 



intestine showing through those produced by burns, and in an old man 



the integuments. (After J 



Pagenstecher.) an ulcer formed. Others record painful punc- 



tures and persistent osdema produced by this 



pigeon pest. It was once abundant in Canterbury Cathedral, and 

 often caused much annoyance, I am told, to the worshippers ; the 

 ticks falling down from the roof, where they were living, derived 

 from the numerous pigeons that breed in the towers. This Acarus 

 has enormous powers of vitality, living without food for months at 

 a time. F. V. T.] 



Argas persicus, Fischer de Waldheim, 1824. 



Of oval form and brownish-red colour. The male measures 4 to 



5 mm. in length by 3 mm. in breadth ; the female 7 to 10 mm. in 

 length by 5 to 6 mm. in breadth. It frequents the entire north-west 



