CHAPTER V 



NOTES ON TICKS 



THE impression that most of us have of a tick is of a slightly lustrous 

 lead-coloured body, about as big as a pea, lying deep in the coat of 

 a dog or other quadruped. This body is the abdomen of a tick, the 

 beak or rostrum of which (Fig. 9, A) is buried in its host's skin for 

 the purpose of prehension and of sucking blood or lymph. The 



\ 



FIG. 9. TICKS. (From Braim's ' Animal Parasites of Man,' translated 



by Sambon.) 



i and 2, The dorsal and ventral aspects respectively of the female of Ixodes ricinus, 

 a common tick ; A, the rostrum ; B, the terminal joint of the maxillary palpi 

 of the same ; C, the ventral surface of Argas Persicus. 



common dog-tick, called Ixodes ricinus (Fig. 9), from its resemblance 

 to a castor-oil seed, may measure 10 to n millimetres in length. 

 It is so tough that it may be seized in a forceps, and if a steady pull 

 is made the parasite comes away, and when released runs off, 

 looking, with its four pairs of legs, not unlike a spider. It is found 

 on many different kinds of quadrupeds as well as on dogs. 



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