44 
successfully molt has also been affirmed. ‘The adults are rarely found 
on the back or high on the flanks of the animals. They get most 
numerous on the relatively hairless parts under the shoulders, between 
the thighs, about the genitalia and anus, and on the udder. The larvee 
and nymphs prefer the same situations, but a few also get on to the 
back and flanks; of all parts they appear to prefer the feet. The 
adults are considered responsible for the formation and spread of 
sores. Such sores on calves may involve and destroy the teats. So 
serious is this evil that on some farms a milch cow witha sound udder 
is exceptional. 
All stages of the bont tick may fast many months while awaiting a 
host. Larve have remained alive fully seven months in a cork- » 
stoppered bottle, and a single adult an equally long time. Females 
forcibly detached from a host without injuring the rostrum may sur- 
vive and lay fertile eggs, even if only half engorged. Males thus 
detached rapidly lose vitality and generally succumb within three 
days, but while they have life they lose no opportunity to again 
attach themselves, and do not hesitate to then attack even the hand of 
aman. The method of piercing the skin may be easily followed in 
the case of such specimens. 
By a carefully conducted experiment the bont tick has been found 
by the writer to transmit the heart-water disease alluded to in the 
opening paragraph. lLarve were reared on diseased goats. As 
nymphs these ticks were placed on healthy goats and the disease pro- 
duced. In one instance ten ticks transmitted the infection. An 
account of the experiment is given in the Cape Agricultural Journal 
for May 24,1900. It appears probable that the bont tick may also com- 
municate ‘‘redwater,” the disease known in America as Texas fever. 
A cow purposely infested with a few specimens which came from a 
redwater area contracted the disease when no other possible source 
of infection appeared present. The circumstances surrounding the 
incident are given in the writer’s annual report for 1899 (Report of 
Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, Cape of Good Hope). 
THE BONT LEG TICK. 
The second largest common South African tick is Hyalomma egyp- 
tius Audouin. The Dutch colonists know it as ‘‘ Bontepooten,” a 
term suggested by bands of white on the legs of the adults, and from 
this term is taken the English colonists’ name here adopted. This 
species is found all over Cape Colony, but is best known in the dry, 
inland districts. It occurs in other parts of Africa and elsewhere. 
The fully engorged female sometimes measures four-fifths of an inch 
in length and over a half inch in width. The life cycle has not been 
traced, but scattered observations indicate that the molting and host- 
securing habits are similar to those of Amblyomma hebreum. The 
