
370 A CHAPTER ON MITES. 
the body. We now come to the Ticks, which comprise the 
largest mites. The genus Argas closely resembles Ixodes. 
Gerstaecker states that the Argas Persicus is very annoying 
to travellers in Persia. The habits of the wood ticks, Ixo- 
des, have been already referred to in the Naruraxist (Vols. 
ii, p. 559; iii, p. 51). Travellers in the tropics speak of the 
intolerable torment occasioned by these pests, which, occur- 
ring ordinarily on shrubs and trees, attach themselves to all 
sorts of reptiles, beasts and cattle, and even man himself 
as he passes by within their reach. Sometimes cases fall 
within the practice of the physician, who is called to remove 
the tick which is found sometimes literally buried under the 
skin. Mr. J. Stauffer writes me, that “on June 23d the 
daughter of Abraham Jackson (colored), playing among the 
leaves in a wood, near Springville, Lancaster County, Penn., 
on her return home complained of pain in the arm. No 
attention was paid to it till the next day, wher a raised 
tumor was noticed, a small portion protruding through the 
skin, apparently like a splinter of wood. The child was 
taken to Dr. Morency, who applied the forceps, and after 
considerable pain to the child, and labor to himself, ex- 
tracted a species of Ixodes, nearly one-quarter of an inch 
long, and of an oval form and brown mahogany color, with 
a metallic spot, like silver bronze, centrally on the dors 
region." This tick proved, from Mr. Stauffer’s figures, to 
be, without doubt, Zrodes unipunctata Pack. (Pl. 6, fig. 11, 
enlarged). It has also been found in Massachusetts by Mr. 
F. G. Sanborn. 
Another species is the Ixodes bovis Riley (Pl. 6, fig. 10), 
the common cattle tick of the Western States and Centra 
America. It is very annoying to horned cattle, gorging 
itself with their blood, but is by no means confined v them 
alone, as it lives indifferently upon the rattlesnake, the 
iguana, small mammals, and undoubtedly any other animal 
that brushes by its lurking-place in the forest. It is a red- 
es coriaceous, flattened, seed-like creature, with the body 

