THE BIRD TICK. 101 
applied several days afterwards. The female, however, began to fill 
with blood and 19 days later dropped rather well engorged. This 
female did not deposit eggs but lived 172 days, as noted above. 
Attempts to get adults to attach to a hen were unsuccessful. 
No observations have been made on mating, nor have the periods 
of preoviposition and deposition been determined. The number of 
eggs deposited has not been determined as yet. 
LIFE CYCLE. 
Larve may live for at least 39 days and probably much longer; 
they engorge in from 5 to 12 days and molt in the summer as soon 
as the fourteenth day after dropping and as long as the ninety- 
second day after dropping in the winter. A total effective tempera- 
ture of 505° F. is required for this transformation. One nymph lived 
for at least 74 days. Nymphs may become engorged in 5 days during 
the last of November. Molting to adults occurred in as short a 
period as 26 days after dropping and during the winter a molting 
period of 186 days was recorded. A total effective temperature of 
651° F. appears to be required to produce the nymphal molt. Males 
may live 305 days and females as long as 131 days. 
Most of our collections have been made between November and 
April. During this period all stages have been taken on wild bird 
hosts, the larve and nymphs being very abundant. No doubt they 
are present on hosts in Texas throughout the year. In Vermont, 
where the species has appeared as a pest to turkeys, adults and imma- 
ture ticks were found in abundance in June. 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE, 
The bird tick has attracted attention as an economic species only 
in a few instances. In 1906 a specimen was received by the Bureau 
of Entomology from Taftsville, Vt., with the statement that it was 
found attacking a turkey. This species was not again heard of as a 
pest until June, 1909, when the attention of Dr. Philip B. Hadley, of 
the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station, was called to a 
flock of young turkeys which were being killed by this tick at Nor- 
wich, Vt. The parasite appeared on turkeys on two farms in that 
locality. Dr. Hadley states that on one farm 40 out of a flock of 
46 turkeys died before the ticks were finally destroyed by hand 
picking. Numerous adult and immature ticks were found to be 
attached to the hosts, principally on the necks of the birds. Dr. 
Hadley informed us that apparently none of these ticks was present 
in the vicinity of Norwich during 1910. 
It is doubtful if these ticks ever become so numerous on wild birds 
as to cause their death, though they frequently appear in great num- 
