370 THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



small club-like palpi, the lack of suckers on the legs, as well as by the 

 scutellum, which covers the entire back and is bent up round the borders. 

 Two genera are distinguished: Argas, Latreille, 1796 (Rhynchoprion, Hermann, 

 1804), and Ornithodoros, Koch, 1844. The species live on mammals, but more 

 especially on birds. 



The European Marginated Tick, Argus reflexus (length of male 

 4 mm., breadth 3 mm., length of female 6 8 mm., breadth 4 mm.) 

 is of a yellowish colour and has yellowish- white legs. The 



ingested blood shows red or brown through 

 the intestine, which is provided with blind 

 sacs. It lives in dove-cots. It remains 

 hidden during the day and at night crawls 

 on to the sleeping pigeons to suck their 

 blood. It has been observed in France, 

 England, Italy, Germany, and Russia. Per- 

 sons sleeping near infected dove-cots, or in 

 apartments formed from pigeon lofts, are 

 FIG 2^8 Ar as re- a ^ so Stacked, even when the room in ques- 

 ftexus from the dorsal sur- tion has not been used for sheltering pigeons 



ttSu^h^aj^^SS for y ears > as "marginated ticks" can live in 

 (After Pagenstecher.) a fasting condition for a very long time. The 



bite sometimes gives rise to serious symp- 

 toms, such as general erythema and sudden oedema. 1 



[This pest more often feeds on the blood of man than is 

 imagined. Blanchard states that he has received them from 

 men's clothes in Strasbourg. Boschulte, of Westphalia, records 

 these parasites in a bedroom inhabited by children and connected 

 with a pigeon house. The children were bitten during sleep on the 

 hands and feet. The result of the bite was intense itching 

 along the nerves, the bite only being marked by a red spot. In 

 a girl of 14 or 15, vesicles were formed similar to those produced 

 by burns, and in an old man an ulcer formed. Others record 

 painful punctures and persistent cedema produced by this pigeon 

 pest. It was once abundant in Canterbury Cathedra], and often 



1 Raspail, V., " Rech. d'hist. nat sur les insectes morbipares" (Gaz. des hopitaux, 

 i8'39, i., p. 9); Boschulte, " Argas reflexus als Parasit des Menschen" (Virchow's 

 Arch., 1860, xviii., p. 554; 1879, Ixxv., p. 562); Gerstacker, A., "Argas reflexus, 

 ein neuer Parasit des Mensch." (ibid., 1860, xix., p. 457); Alt. K., "Die Taubenzecke 

 als Parasit des Menschen " (Miinch. med. Wochenschr., 1892, No. 30 ; and Centralbl. 

 fur Bact., 1893, xiv., p. 468) ; Neumann, G., " Rev. de la Jam. d. Ixodides. I." (Mem. 

 soc. zool., France, 1896, ix., p. 4) ; Gibert, J. M.. " L'argas reft, et son paras, chez I'homme. 

 These de Bordeaux," 1896 (Centr. f. Bakt., Par. und Inf., xxiii., p. 515); Brandes, G., 

 " Arg. reft, als gelegentl. Paras, d. Mensch " (Centr. f. Bakt., Par. und Inf., 1897, xxii., 

 p. 747). 



