318 [39] 



APPENDIX I 



[Reprinted from Parasitology, Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 39-44, March, 1911.] 



THE PROCESS OF COPULATION IN 

 ORNITHODORUS MOUBATA. 



By GEORGE H. F. NUTTALL, F.R.S. and 

 GORDON MERRIMAN. 



Although the literature on ticks is very extensive, we have failed 

 to find any satisfactory description therein of the process of copulation. 

 Most authors state that the male mouthparts are introduced into the 

 female genital orifice, or vulva, and that this constitutes copulation, 

 leaving it to the reader's imagination to determine how the seminal 

 secretion gains access to the female generative organs. The mechanism 

 of copulation, in other words, remains to be described, and we propose, 

 in this paper, to give an account of what we have observed in Ornitho- 

 dorus moubata. We shall describe the process in Ixodidae in a later 

 paper, but may state here that, as far as our knowledge goes, it is 

 essentially the same as in moubata, that is, impregnation takes place by 

 means of spermatophores. 



We have repeatedly observed the process in moubata in Cambridge, 

 and the description which follows is based on the study of several pairs 

 in copulation. When a male and female moubata, which are ready to 

 copulate, are placed in a dish, the male creeps about upon the female 

 and presently seeks to creep beneath her, usually to one side between 

 the second and third legs. The posterior part of the female's body is 

 now raised, and the male advances so as to bring his body into line with 

 the female's, the ventral surfaces of the pair being apposed. The male 

 clings with his legs to the basal joints of the female's legs, his pair I in 



