278 ENTOMOLOGY FOR MEDICAL OFFICERS 



The segments of the legs are expanded, the femur, tibia, 

 and protarsus of the hind legs of the male being enormously- 

 broadened ; in the female only the distal ends of the 

 segments are expanded. Only one species, M. lounsburyi, 

 Neumann, from South Africa, is known, its hosts being horses 

 and cattle. Neumann does not separate Margaropus from 

 Boophilus. 



Subfamily Argantin^ : Soft-ticks. 



In this subfamily there is no dorsal shield, or scutum ; 

 the capitulum in the adult is inferior, so that nothing — 

 except, perhaps, the tips of the pedipalps — is visible in a 

 dorsal view, and it lies in a shallow depression known as 

 the camerostome ; the spiracles are small, and lie behind and 

 above the coxs of the third pair of legs on either side ; the 

 pedipalps are not rigid and are composed of 4 nearly equal 

 segments ; the legs are attached between two low longitudinal 

 folds — the supra-coxal and sxxh-coxal folds, on the former of 

 which the eyes, when they are present, are situated; the 

 coxffi are unarmed, and the pulvillus is absent or vestigial. 

 There is no marked difference between the two sexes ; but 

 the male is smaller and has a semilunar genital pore. 



The Argantinae do not, at any rate in their adult stage, 

 attach themselves permanently to a host, but have more the 

 habits of bed-bugs, hiding in crevices, and creeping out — as 

 a rule in the night-time — to suck blood. They are parasitic 

 on birds and mammals, and at least two species have acquired 

 infamy by their habitual attacks on man in certain parts of 

 the world, and by the subsequent effects of their bite. 



They do not die as soon as they have once reproduced 

 their species, but they live and grow (as is evidenced by the 

 frequent moulting of the cuticle) for years, and the female 

 produces more than one batch of eggs. 



The larva when first hatched has the capitulum anterior, 

 almost as in the Ixodinse, but later the capitulum becomes 

 pushed into an inferior position by the growth of the fore 

 part of the body. 



From the medical standpoint the soft-ticks are of greater 

 interest than the Ixodinae, since they are more definitely 

 human parasites. Exaggerated statements may, perhaps, 



