45 
hosts, too, are the same. It is more frequently a subject for complaint 
with sheep, goat, and ostrich farmers than with cattle farmers, but 
perhaps this is because it chances to be naturally more abundant in 
the districts where the kinds of stock first mentioned are farmed. It 
infests much the same situations on the hosts as the bont tick, and is 
a frequent cause of lameness, particularly in sheep and goats. Males 
predominate on a beast and remain a long time. The various periods 
of the life cycle, so far as these are known, are all of shorter duration 
than the corresponding periods with the bont. There is presumed to 
be, ordinarily, one full generation in the course of a yeay. This 
species, as an adult, appears to far oftener attach to man than other 
South African Ixodide.. The larve of the different species seem 
about equally troublesome in this respect, and make the life of some 
people in tick districts one of frequent misery. 
THE BLUE TICK. 2 
‘Blue tick” is a convenient popular name for P’Azpicephalus decol- 
ovatus Koch, but in reality the color of the replete female—the stage 
in the life cycle most commonly observed and the one suggesting the 
name—is nearer slate-gray than blue. This species is a close ally to the 
common cattle tick of America, Rhipicephalus annulatus Say, or, as it 
is more familiarly known, Boophilus bovis Riley. Prof. G. Neumann 
has stated to the writer that in a forthcoming supplement to his mono- 
graph on ticks he expects to class the South African species as a 
variety of the American. There are, however, a number of constant 
structural differences between the two ticks, as shown by Mr. Claude 
Fuller in the Queensiand Agricultural Journal for May, 1899, pages 
389-394. 
The blue tick is by far the most abundant of South African ticks. 
It is found almost everywhere in Cape Colony, and sometimes occurs 
in such numbers on cattle as to quite obscure large areas of the skin. 
Few farmers, however, regard it as of really serious importance; and 
while it doubtless severely taxes the strength of animals when con- 
tinually abundant on them, it does not ordinarily appear to affect their 
condition and certainly does not worry them to near the extent that 
the two larger species do. Occasionally, nevertheless, calves are 
reported to be stunted in growth and even destroyed. Since this 
species is probably the common agent for the transmission of South 
African redwater (Texas fever) as is surmised, it may be of interest 
to record that it occurs in abundance on cattle in many places to which 
the disease has yet to spread. 
The changes from larva to nymph and from nymph to adult take 
place on the host. Both stages feed three or four days and then 
remain quiescent about the same length of time with the rostrum still 
affixed to the flesh. The nymph settles near the larval skin and the 
