102 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



molted, forty-one days having elapsed. Others molted after forty- 

 seven days. 



The adult ticks thus secured were not fed but were placed in an 

 unheated and shaded greenhouse room for the winter. 



Several hundred ticks from the same lot as those used in the 

 cage experiments recorded above, which had not been required, were 

 kept in the stender dish in which they hatched, for the purpose of 

 determining how long they would live without food. The dish was 

 scaled with vaseline and in the bottom was kept about half an inch 

 of earth which was moistened from time to time. Left undisturbed 

 for a few hours, the ticks gathered in clusters or "balls" but would 

 ai' once scatter in all directions when the cover was lifted and 

 would soon be seen rather evenly distributed throughout the dish. 

 A very slight disturbance would cause them to scatter. 



They lived on without noticeable change in appearance, cluster- 

 ing or gathering in "balls" again and again when left undisturbed. 

 They began to die in the early part of August and by August 14th 

 all were dead. Thus these ticks lived without food and in confine- 

 ment for nearly six weeks after hatching. No green or dry vege- 

 tation was allowed in the jar. It is felt that had they been at liberty 

 in nature their possibilities of living longer would have been much 

 greater. 



On July 29th two adult females taken from horses were received 

 from Mr. Foley Waters who resides in the West Gallatin Basin, one 

 being fully engorged and the other having fed but little. The smaller 

 one was dead. The larger one was put in a small pill box and on 

 A-ugust 4th the first eggs were found. This female continued to lay 

 eggs until September 9th when it was thought that no more would 

 be laid and the much shrunken female was supposed to be dead, 

 but about a half dozen more eggs were found afterward. By actual 

 count this female laid 4814 eggs up to September 9th, or a total of 

 about 4820. , 



These eggs were placed in stender disher and on September 30th 

 they began to hatch. Cold weather soon set in and on October 5th 

 and 7th the dishes were placed in an enclosure on the campus where 

 the temperature is close to that of the unprotected open. The eggs 

 slopped hatching. On November 28th a few were brought into the 

 building and in a few hours they had all hatched. The remainder 

 will be kept until next spring. 



