588 REPORT—1905. 
enemies. <A female tick, collected September 23, 1903, was kept under 
‘observation. Oviposition began about November 25, and the eggs began 
to hatch January 23. lLarve fed to repletion on the scrotum of an ox 
in five days, and on the leg of a goat in six. The larva-nymph stage 
occupied sixteen days in the incubator. Nymphs fed in from seven to 
nine days, and the nymph-adult stage took eighty-two days (September 19 
to December 10) at the temperature of the room. These figures indicate 
that the species develops in about the same time as A. hebreum. Only 
five females have been fed to repletion. One came away in sixteen days, 
one in twenty, two in twenty-seven, and one in forty-five. The males and 
females attach in the first place without reference one to. the other, and we 
do not know whether the male seeks the female, or the female the male. 
Both have been found to detach themselves and move about, but whether 
to find a mate or a better position for feeding is uncertain. Males have 
moved up to females, and feinales to males. 
No tick has given us more trouble to rear than yalomma wegyptium 
var. impressum. This species is found throughout South Africa, even in 
the dryest parts. The adult probably attacks any warm-blooded animal. 
It is common to find it on the horse, ox, sheep, goat, hare, and ostrich, 
and it has been taken from the dog, fowl, and man. By choice it attaches 
about the feet and under parts of the larger animals. The larva has 
consistently failed to feed time after time when applied to the horse, ox, 
goat, sheep, dog, and man. Many thousands of vigorous specimens have 
been placed on one or more goats on at least twenty different occasions, 
and though a few generally attached to the skin, none ever fed to reple- 
tion. Finally the discovery was made that it would feed readily on the 
head of a fowl or on the head of a rabbit ; and now we know it too fre- 
quently infests the head of the common hare of the country, and 
specimens have been taken from the head of several birds, including the 
ostrich. 
It takes about nine days to feed, and remains affixed to the skin 
whilst it moults to the nymph. The nymph attaches close by the old 
skin, and becomes fully distended about the twenty-first day (seventeen 
to twenty-five days) ; it then drops. The nymph-adult stage has taken 
seventeen days in the incubator and twenty-eight days or longer in 
summer at ordinary temperatures. The adult-larva stage has taken 
forty-two days in the incubator and seventy-one days, from October 15 
to December 24, in the only record at ordinary temperature that we have 
preserved. Unfed larve have remained active in a glass tube for nine 
months. The unfed adult is often seen running about the ground, and 
has been found in numbers hiding under the bark of a tree at an outspan. 
The male and female attach to the host independently at first, but get 
together after a few days. Only a few females have been fed to repletion 
under observation : two of these came away six days after being applied 
to a beast on which males had been present for two days. It is not 
probable that the life-cycle ordinarily occupies less than a year. 
The only species of Hamaphysalis we know in South Africa is 
H. leach, the common dog tick of the country. It is common in the 
coastal and grass veld districts. The species appears practically confined 
to carnivora, and very few specimens have been detected on cattle even 
where it is most common. ‘We have found it on the dog, cat, leopard, 
jackal, and ox. All stages feed readily on the dog, cat, and jackal, and 
appear not to be partial to any particular part of the body unless it is to 
