THE SHEEP TICK. 



85 



94. Sheep Tick. 



head of its captor, where it is an undesirable guest. Another 

 species sometimes infests the ox." 



In the wingless Sheep tick (Melophagns ovinus, Fig. 94, with 

 the pupa-case on the left), the body is wingless and very hairy, 

 and the proboscis is very long. The young are developed within 

 the body of the parent, until they attain the pupa state, when 

 she deposits the pupa- 

 case, which is nearly 

 half as large as her 

 abdomen. Other gen- 

 era are parasitic on 

 bats ; among them are 

 the singular spider- 

 like Bat ticks (Nycte- 

 ribia, Fig. 95), which 

 have small bodies and 

 enormous legs, and are either blind, or 

 provided with four simple eyes. They 

 are of small size, being only a line or two 



in length. Such degraded 95. Bat Tick. 



forms of Diptera have a remarkable resemblance to 



the spiders, mites, ticks, etc. The reader should 



compare the Nycteribia with the young six- footed 



moose tick figured farther on. Another 



spider-like fly is the Chionea valga 



(Fig. 96; and 97, larva of the European 



species), which is a degraded Tipula, 



the latter genus standing near the 



head of the Diptera. The Chionea, 



according to Harris, lives in its early 



stages in the ground like many other 



gnats, and is found early in the spring, 



sometimes crawling over the snow. 



We have also figured and mentioned 96 ' Spider fly> 



previously (page 41) the Bee louse, Braula, another 



wingless spider-like fly. 



The Flea is also a wingless fly, and is probably, as 

 97. Larva of has been suggested by an eminent entomologist, 

 Spider fly. as Baron Osten Sacken informs us, a degraded genus 

 of the family to which Mycetobia belongs. Its transformations 

 are very unlike those of the fly ticks, and agree closely with the 

 8 



