42 PARASITES OP GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



Good Hope and to Mr. C. W. Howard, entomologist to the govern- 

 ment of Lourenco Marques, Portuguese East Africa. In June, 1909, 

 Mr. C. W. Howard reared parasites from engorged nymphs of Rhipi- 

 cephalus sanguineus taken from dogs, with which transmission 

 experiments with piroplasmosis were being made. Examination 

 showed them to be Hunter ellus liookeri. Mr. C. W. Howard is of 

 the opinion that these 1909 reared specimens could not have been 

 the offspring of those sent over in the autumn of 1908, since, as he 

 writes under date of September 3, 1909, the latter arrived while he 

 was absent in the Zambesi country, and, as he was gone nearly three 

 months, they remained on his desk unopened. When he returned 

 they were all dead. He kept the ticks some time, however, in a 

 sealed jar to see if any more parasites might emerge, but none did so. 

 In his opinion there is absolutely no possibility that the 1909 speci- 

 mens are the descendants of those sent from Texas. Of course Mr. 

 C. W. Howard is probably correct in his surmise, but a most interest- 

 ing question arises as to the original home of the parasite. Could it 

 have been carried accidentally from Texas to Africa at an earlier 

 date ? As a matter of fact, during the Boer War thousands of horses 

 and mules were shipped from southern Texas to Cape Town, and 

 much of this stock came from the very region in which the Texas 

 Rhipicephalus occurs. Banks, in his revision of the ticks, 1 records 

 this species from horses as well as from dogs, the horse record coming 

 from New Mexico. The suggestion regarding the importation of 

 horses and mules from Texas to Cape Town during the Boer War 

 was made to the writer by Mr. W. D. Hunter, who also suggests that 

 as Rhipicephalus sanguineus occurs throughout Africa and Mediter- 

 ranean Europe, and that as in 1853 several shipments of camels 

 were brought to Texas from Tunis, being turned loose at Indianola 

 and roaming wild throughout the territory around Corpus Christi 

 for some years, it is possible that the Rhipicephalus was brought to 

 Texas on these camels, and the parasite as well. This seems unlikely, 

 however, since the parasite had never been found in Africa or Europe 

 until the specimens referred to were reared by Mr. C. W. Howard in 

 1909. 



Mr. Froggatt's Journey to Various Parts of the World in 1907-8. 



As a result of a conference of Australian Government entomologists, 

 held in Sydney, July 9, 1906, and of a conference of State premiers, 

 held in Brisbane, June, 1907, it was agreed that Mr. W. W. Froggatt, 

 entomologist to the Department of Agriculture of the State of New 

 South Wales, should be dispatched to America, Europe, and India, 

 to inquire into the best methods of dealing with fruit-flies and other 

 pests, the expenses of the journey to be shared by Queensland, South 



1 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, Technical Series No. 15, p. 35, 1908. 



