154 



Annals of the Teansvaal Museum. 



proved to constitute a separate genus. It seems to me that the differences 

 are quite sufficient for that, and I Iiave therefore followed Lahille in retain- 

 ing it. 



There is only one species helonging to this genus in South Africa, 

 N eumaniella transversale. 1 have never see a specimen^ hut have followed 

 N^eumann in the following description : — 



NEUMANIELLA TEANSVERSALE. (LUCAS.) 

 Python Tick. 

 ■ Ixodes transversalis, Lucas (1841:, 1845). 



Aponomma transversale^ (Lucas) (Neumann, 1899). 

 Plate XV 1^ figures ii {a, b, c, d). 



Male. — Body flat, narrow in front, ver}^ wide hehind, wider than long, 

 3 mm. wide by 2.75 mm. long (rostrum not included). Shield reddish 

 brown, glabrous, smooth, without punctuations or with punctuations very 

 fine and few in number ; cervical grooves straight, parallel behind, then 

 two large pits, and at the periphery five to seven short, radiating grooves ; 

 marginal grooves not \'ery apparent, Init marking off' a light coloured 

 marginal area, narrow in front, wide behind, where it is divided into eleven 

 poorly defined festoons. Ventral surface reddish yellow, concave, with very 

 short, scarcely visible hairs ; sexual opening opposite second inter-coxal 

 space ; sexual grooves very short ; anus near the posterior third of the 

 length of the body ; no anal groove ; ano-marginal groove M^ell marked ; 

 stigmatic plates nearly transverse, short comma shaped. Rostrum 1 mm. 

 long, base large, a little wider than long, dorso-posterior angles fairly 

 prominent ; mandibles [XVI, n («)] with inner apophysis bear- 

 ing a process with two teeth, and with base elongate 

 longitudinally, and nearly half as long as the apophysis ; outer 

 apophysis with four teeth, the posterior strongest, and the base of the 

 apophysis narrowed to a point ; h3^postome [XVI, n (f)] wide, spatulate, 

 emarginate at tip, which is furnished with a very large number of small 

 denticles, extending over the anterior tliird of the hypostome ; two rows 

 of seven to eight large teeth in each row along each outer margin ; palpi 

 thick, third article equal in length to two-thirds of the length of the second 

 article, both articles with a few hairs on their margins. Legs short, thick, 

 chestnut brown in colour ; coxae rather strong, a short spine in the centre 

 of the posterior margin of each ; tarsi thick ; tarsi IV twice as long as 

 wide, each tarsus provided with two small terminal spurs, followed by a 

 similar spur near the distal third of the ventral margin on tarsi II, III and 

 IV ; tarsi I bears Hollers organ in the middle of its length, false articula- 

 tion near the middle of the length in tarsi II, III and IV [XVI, n (d)] ; 

 short hairs on all of the articles. 



Female. — Body swollen ; very wide, ordinarily 1.5 mm. long by 2.5 

 mm. wide, but may reach a size of () mm. in length and 8 mm. in width ; 

 glabrous ; reddish brown or dirty gTeen in colour. Shield [XVI, n {!))'] ; 

 cordiform in outline, angles rounded, except the posterior angle, which is a 

 little emarginate ; lateral margin very convex ; colour reddish brown ; no 

 hairs and no punctuations ; cervical grooves deep, nearly straight, and 

 pointed, reaching posterior margin, and dividing the surface into three 

 i.)arts, median of which is rectangular in outline, the laterals triangular, and 



