Vol. Xxiv] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 367 



At Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, however, this form was not 

 found, while our own variety, anniilatus proper, was taken 

 on cattle there. More recently (March and April, 1912) Mr. 

 G. N. Wolcott took the Australian cattle tick, as this form is 

 commonly called, in numbers on horses and cattle, and a single 

 female (one-third engorged) on an Angora goat in the Prov- 

 ince of Pinar del Rio, Cuba. This variety has also been re- 

 ported from practically all of the other islands of the West In- 

 dies. 



With the close trade relations maintained between Cuba and 

 other West Indian Islands and Key West, it is not difficult to 

 account for the introduction of the tick in that port. There 

 is always danger of this form being brought into southern 

 Texas from Mexico, but the likelihood is equally great of its 

 establishment on the mainland of Florida, from the infesta- 

 tion now existing in Key West. This is made more easily ac- 

 complished now that Key \\''est is placed in more intimate con- 

 nection with the mainland by the East Coast Railway. 



The importance of the establishment of M. annulatus aus- 

 tralis in the United States is problematical. There is reason to 

 believe that it would successfullv breed in most of our South- 

 ern States. Certain habits of this form make its presence in 

 the United States a grave danger. It is known in other coun- 

 tries to have much more generalized host relationships than 

 has the variety common to this countr^^ For instance. Rohr* 

 says that in Brazil although cattle are the principal hosts, 

 the horse, goat, sheep, dog, rabbit and man are attacked also. 

 Adults of both sexes were found on dogs in Jamaica by 

 Newstead.'' He also says that the larvae are a great pest of 

 man there and that it is the common belief that this stage will 

 attack any vertebrate animal. 



It is possible, of course, that this form if introduced into 

 the United States may soon take on the characters and habits 



*Estudos sobre Ixodida? do Brasil — (Trabalho do Institute do Os- 

 waldo Cruz), Rio de Janeiro, p. 90. iQog. 



'Ticks and other blood sucking Arthropoda. Reports of the twenty- 

 first expedition of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Jamaica, 

 1908-1909.— Ann. of Trop. Med. and Parasitology, \'ol. Ill, No. 4, p. 

 436, Nov. 1909. 



