TICKS. 



i8S 



Family IXODID^ (Ticlcs). 



In this family the body is covered by a tough, smooth, leathery 

 skin, which, in the female, is capable of much extension. The 

 rostrum and mandibles are adapted for sucking. They have 

 valvate palpi sheathing the rostrum, which is composed of two 

 lateral parts, and a middle part covered with recurved barbs, 

 which prevent its retracting when once driven into the flesh ; but 

 Professor Busk ascertained by his researches on the living young 

 of the Catapato (Amblyomma rotundatum) that the sucking 



Rgstruin of Ixodes. Copied from figure lay Audou! j. 



Claw of ditto. Copied from figure by Megnin. 



apparatus (in it at least) lies not in the middle part or rostrum, 

 but in the mandibles on each side of it, up each of these run two 

 tubes de&igned for this office. The feet terminate in two claws, 

 and a caruncle or vesicle which acts as a sucker. An important 



