INSECTS AND BIRDS. 



283 



SECTION XLIV. THE CATTLE TICK. 



By PROF. WILMON NEWELL, 

 Texas State Entomologist. 



The cattle tick ("Mar- 

 garopus annulatus ") is 

 one of the greatest pests 

 to live-stock. Where the 

 ticks are prevalent there 

 will be hundreds, or 

 maybe thousands, of ticks 

 sticking here and there 

 among the hairs. Each 

 tick has a long beak which 

 it inserts into the animal's 

 skin, and through which it 

 is constantly sucking up 

 her blood. 



Texas Cattle Fever. 

 Then, too, the ticks often 

 give to cattle the deadly 

 disease known as " Texas 

 cattle fever," which kills thousands of cattle in the 

 South every year. So much loss is caused by these ticks 

 that the United States Department of Agriculture is 

 spending nearly a half million dollars a year in trying 

 to destroy them. 



Description. The female ticks are quite large when 

 full grown, measuring as much as three-eights of an 

 inch in length. The color is dark gray, and the eight 

 legs are so small that they are not noticed without look- 

 ing closely for them. These are the ticks that are so 

 easily found on the cow. 



The male ticks are much smaller and are very active. 

 They, too, suck blood through the skin of the animal, 

 but they do not stay in one place long at a time. 



Life History. The female tick stays upon the 



FEMALE CATTLE TICK. 



