Annals of the Tkansvaal Museum. 



97 



IXODES RUBICUNDUS, NEUMANN. 

 Ixodes ruble II )hJ us, Neumaiiii (1904). 

 Plate ] \ , iigiires / {a, b) . 



M(de. — Bodij, 2.0 nun. (including rostrum) with an oval contour, 

 narrower in front, 1.2 mm. wide, near tlie posterior third; chestnut 

 brown. Shield convex, shining', glabrous, leaving a marginal cushion 

 ■ exposed, which is wider behind than on the sides, and from which 

 it is separated by a dee}) groove ; cervical grooves straight, superhcial, 

 prolonged and diverging near the middle of the length ; no posterior 

 festoons; numerous punctuations, small, unequal, regularly 

 distributed. On the ventral surface [IV, I («)] g^i^ital pore wide, 

 between the coxae of the third pair of legs; pregenital shield long, 

 triangular; genito-anal shield pentagonal, much longer than wide, 

 with shallow punctuations, not very numerous ; anal shield 

 rectangular, with sides parallel, longer than wide, very finely 

 punctured, adanal shields longer than wide, with sides parallel; no 

 hairs; stigmatic plates large, circular. Rosfruiii short; base 

 trapezoidal, larger in front, and wider than long, its posterior angles 

 not salient on the dorsal surface, but so on ventral surface, separated 

 by a similarly salient median pair; mandibles thick, inner apophysis 

 with two strong teeth, the posterior stronger; outer apoj^hysis with 

 three teeth, the anterior small, the posterior very strong; hypostome 

 [/r, / {b)] wide, teeth fused on each half into four transverse 

 crenulations with three or four denticles, followed by a row of four 

 or five teeth, and on each side with a very strong tooth; palpi short, 

 the second and third articles almost of same length. Ler/s of medium 

 length, l)rick red; coxae I with inner spine almost obsolete; the other 

 coxae unarmed; tarsi of medium length, progressively attenuated. 



Femclc. — Body in an elongate oval, may reach 10 mm. in length 

 (rostrum not included) by 6.5 mm. wide at the posterior third, brick 

 red on specimens of a small size, but chevstnut coloured on others. 

 Shield, ill a short oval, scarcely longer (1.6 mm.) than wide (1.4 mm.), 

 with lateral edges a little convex and diverging from front to rear, 

 then a right angle converging to form the posterior angle, which is 

 rather narrow, anterior margin a little emarginate for the insertion 

 of the rostrum: cervical grooves vrell marked; almost reaching the 

 lateral margins ; lateral grooves very pronounced ; punctuations 

 numerous, fine, slightly unequal, few in the lateral areas ; surface 

 shiny, glabrous, chestnut l)rown. Dorscd surface with scattered hairs; 

 punctuations very superficial; three posterior grooves. Ventral surface 

 with punctuations and hairs similar; genital pore opposite coxae IV, 

 anus very anterior; anal grooves long, parallel, united in front of the 

 anus; stigmatic plates small, circular, Avhitish. Rostrnm 0.85 mm. 

 long; dorsal ])ase rectangular, much wider than long; porose areas 

 oval, oblique, converging in front, situated near the lateral margin and 

 separated l)y an interval equal to their width: on the ventral surface 

 a retrograde spine l)ehind the insertion of each palpus; mandibles 

 with inner apophysis elongate, parallel to the shaft; outer apophysis 

 with five teeth increasing in size from tip to base ; hypostome elongate, 

 narrow sublanceolate, with three rows of teeth on each side, the 

 median one short, and with six to seven teeth, the middle one almost 

 as long as the external one, which extends from the tip to the base, 



