160 



Genus Ixodes 



Female (Fig. 150) : Body short oval, 7x5 mm. Dark brown all over. Scutum 

 oval, borders rounded, l - 3 x l'l mm., glossy, dark, with a few hairs ; cervical grooves 

 long, barely visible ; many very fine equal punctations. Dorsum bearing many 

 punctiform prominences, some still surmounted by a hair. Venter bearing similar 

 granulations and hairs ; vulva facing the last intercoxal space ; anal grooves slightly 

 divergent ; spiracles rounded, small, reddish. Capitulum 1 mm. long, digit ', 

 hypostome thick, tip slightly tapering, 4 | 4 files of 10-11 teeth, diminishing from 

 outside inward, the external stout, pointed ; the internal blunt, distant from their 

 mates ; palps flat, the external border straight, the internal border convex, article 3 

 as long as 2. Legs of medium length, slender, bearing long hairs on the ventral 

 border ; tarsi long, tapering gradually ; pad almost equals the length of the claws. 



Description (Neumann, 1889, p. 121) based on one gorged % from 

 Funchal, Madeira, collected by K. Kraepelin (Hamburg Museum). 



Fig. 150. /. nigricans $ : capitulum and scutum ; parts of venter, spiracle and tarsus 4. 

 Drawn from the type. (Hamburg Mus. Original, G. H. F. N. del. ) 



Note: Through the courtesy of Professor Kraepelin we have been 

 able to examine and figure the type (1 $). /. nigricans apparently 

 differs from /. ricintis only in (a) the scutum, which is oval (without 

 lateral angularity) and faintly grooved, and (b) the somewhat smaller 

 spiracle. A review of a series of undoubted ricinus from a single batch 

 reveals scutal variations which, in our opinion, render it quite possible 



1 Digit 175 n long ; dorsal process longitudinally crescentic ; external article with five 

 successive teeth, the last stout. 



