ORDER ACARINA: THE TICKS 277 



outer side angulated or produced into a spur. Neumann 

 considers eighteen species to be valid, and they are found in 

 all parts of the world, most of the domestic mammals being 

 included among their victims. 



Rkipicepkalus, 'K.och. (Fig. 121) (/o/\/r = wickerwork basket; 

 Ke0aX)7 = head). A hexagonal basis capituli distinguishes the 

 species of this and the two following genera. The stigmata 

 are comma-shaped or subtriangular, and the usual anal 

 groove is present. Neumann tabulates twenty-three species, 

 chiefly African, but also found in South Europe, the Oriental 

 and the Neotropical regions, their hosts being usually 

 mammals, but occasionally birds. Rhipicephalus sanguineus 

 is a common parasite of domestic animals and has a distri- 

 bution coextensive with the genus. Rhipicephalus gladiger. 



Fig. 122.— Larva of ffffimajj/ij/saiHs. 



Neumann, characterised by the enormous spurs of the coxae 

 of the fourth pair of legs, is according to Neumann identical 

 with Nuttall and Warburton's Rhipicentor. 



Boophilus, Curtice (/3oy? = ox; 0£\ei'i' = to love). Differs 

 from Rhipicephalus in the absence of an anal groove, the 

 absence of festoons, and the circular or broadly oval stigmata. 

 Neumann is content with one species, B. annulatus, which he 

 splits into six subspecies. B. annulatus is one of the 

 commonest and most widely distributed ticks of cattle and 

 other domestic animals, and is notorious as the principal 

 carrier of the piroplasma of bovine red-water fever. The 

 larva of Boophilus sticks to one host in all its transformations 

 into the adult stage. 



Margaropus, Karsch {fxapyapo? = a pearl-oyster ; -wov^ = 

 foot). Differs from Boophilus only in having the coxse of 

 the first pair of legs not bifid, and in the form of the legs. 



