33 



Ixodes ricinus, which conveyed the impression that these were 

 possibly the organs by means of which impregnation took place. 

 Lounsbury says that R. decoloratus remain in coitus several days, and 

 in the case of A. hebrmtm^ a male remained attached to a female 

 almost a full year. 



The process of egg-laying is no less remarkable, and both Messrs. 

 Wheler and R. T. Lewis have contributed excellent descriptions of 

 oviposition by ticks. No less than 2050 eggs laid by one female 

 ricitius were counted by the former. 



The literature of the ticks is fairly extensive. Andrew Murray, in 

 his "Economic Entomology (Aptera)," 1876, deals with the better 

 known species ; Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, Cape Government entomo- 

 logist, is an acknowledged authority ; Dr. G. H. F. Nuttall and 

 Cecil Warburton have in hand a monograph of the Ixodoidea, which 

 promises to be an exhaustive work on the subject ; Professor L. G. 

 Neumann, of Toulouse, is the recognised continental authority ; and 

 Mr. E. G. Wheler's very complete work on the "British Ticks," 

 published in 1906, is a standard book of reference. It is to the 

 latter gentlemen I am indebted for the loan of material and some 

 of the slides for the purpose of this paper. Mr. Harry Moore has 

 also kindly lent me some of the specimens I am handing round. 



