0. moubata 97 



4 — 6 months or more by Newstead, Dutton and Todd, the ticks, never- 

 theless, being capable afterwards of infecting animals with the Spirochaeta 

 duttoni. Unfed specimens have been kept alive for similar periods in 

 Cambridge. Wellman (in MS.) saw females survive unfed for 4 to 

 nearly 6 months after ovipositing and Mollers (1907, p. 278) states that 

 adults may survive unfed for a year. Although fed regularly in 

 captivity adults were seen by Mollers to gradually die off after the 

 lapse of 2 years. 



Natural enemies: as Livingstone (1857, p. 382) wrote: they are 

 difficult to kill, " their skin is so tough and yielding, that it is im- 

 possible to burst it by any amount of squeezing with the fingers." 

 This, combined with their colour and life habits (hiding in cracks and 

 burying themselves in sand or dust), unquestionably affords them 

 much protection. Nevertheless, under natural conditions in the Congo, 

 Dutton and Todd (1905 b, p. 127) and Wellman (in MS.) state that 

 they are devoured by chickens, rats and mice, and that ants carry off 

 young ticks 1 and eggs. Wellman (1906 and 1907) has seen Phonergates 

 bicoloripes Stal. attack and suck the blood out of 0. moubata, and has 

 figured the manner in which the bug seizes upon its prey. He has sent 

 specimens of this tick-enemy to the British Museum (see Austen, 1906, 

 p. 113) and to Cambridge. Dutton and Todd (1905 b) noticed, as have 

 others, that when disturbed they often curl up their legs as if dead. 

 " So lifeless do they seem that one might easily be deceived, especially 

 since they sometimes lie motionless for hours." This habit doubtless 

 affords them protection against enemies. Wellman (1906) states that 

 in the Bihe District, Angola, he observed what appeared to be their 

 destruction by a parasitic mould. 



Feeding: Dutton and Todd (1905b, p. 124) state that a large $ 

 may remain attached to a monkey for 2 — 3 hours, others feed for half 

 an hour. In feeding, the tick braces itself on the forelegs, depresses the 

 capitulum and bores in its mouthparts. It may expel faecal matter, 

 and it exudes clear fluid, in fairly large amount, from the 1st intercoxal 

 space whilst attached to the host or after it has dropped off. According 

 to Newstead, Dutton and Todd (1907) they will not feed well more 

 often than every 7 — 10 days. Newstead weighed a female before and 

 after feeding and notes that her weight increased ten times. Mollers 

 (1907, p. 278) states that moubata feeds for £ to 4 hours. Fed 

 on laboratory animals in Cambridge during the day-time, the adults 



1 Wellman (in sis.) once saw a swarm of driver ants (Dorylus nigricans Illiger) bearing 

 away moubata from a native kraal in Angola. 



n. i. 7 



