46 
adult female, too, does not usually wander far. The sexes look much 
alike at first despite the structural differences. The mating habits are 
still in doubt, but numerous females have been observed to have set- 
tled alone and to have later been jomed by males. Dating from the 
attachment of the larva the females begin. to drop in Ayer twenty- 
four days, and most of them are off by twenty-eight. It takes but a 
short time, only a. week or ten days in midsummer to prepare the 
dropped females for oviposition and within the limits of three summer 
months one life cycle may be completed and a second begun. Larvee 
have been observed to remain on grass tops awaiting a host through 
high winds, rains, and light frosts. Over 2,000 were counted at the 
top of a eel spear of grass. 
Cattle, horses, sheep, oral goats are attacked by the blue tick. It 
matures on all in numbers, but the cattle acquire it in greatest abund- 
ance. ‘The progeny of specimens from a horse have been reared on a 
cow; that of specimens from a cow ona goat, and that of specimens 
from a goat on another goat. The young ticks appear practically 
indifferent to what part of the animal they attach, yet wander more 
when liberated on a beast than do the larve of some other species. 
THE RED TICK. 
The red tick, RAipicephalus evertsi Neumann, takes its common 
name from the color of the adults of both sexes prior to engorgement. 
It has a wide distribution in South Africa and all classes of farm 
animals are attacked by it. Its attack is generally regarded as of no 
consequence, but. some intelligent farmers attribute a temporary 
paralysis of the limbs of sheep and goats to it; when the particular 
tick responsible for the trouble is removed, an afflicted animal quickly 
recovers. Itis rarely that an ox, sheep, goat, or horse running on 
unimproved grazing ground in Cape Colony is entirely free of this 
species of tick. Although the red tick is classified as congeneric with 
the blue, the habits of the two are very dissimilar. The larve of the 
red tick have a decided preference for the inner surface of the ears, and 
comparatively few are found elsewhere on an animal. After three or 
four days feeding ceases, and about the seventh day the nymph appears, 
as with the blue tick; but with repletion in the nymphie stage the tick 
withdraws its rostrum, drops, and molts on the ground, after the 
manner of the bont tick. The adults, in order to obtain a hold ona 
host, habitually rest at the top of a spear of grass or at the end of a 
twig and extend their forelegs when disturbed. This habit, though 
common to the larve of all the Ixodide mentioned in these notes, has 
been observed only in the adult of the red tick and two congeneric 
species, 22. capensis Koch and 2. bursa (4). Only hairless parts of an 
animal attract the adults, and the region adjacent to the anus draws 
more of them than all the remaining surface of the body. Partic- 
