Anxals of the Tea^tsvaal Museum. 



171 



Female. — Body oval, 6 mm. long (rostrum included), 3 mm. 

 wide, sides convex. Shield scarcely longer (2.5 mm.) than wide 

 (2.3 mm.), irregularly oval, deep chestnut brown; cervical grooves 

 deep in front, prolonged almost to the posterior margin ; lateral 

 grooves deep and Avide, each joining the corresponding cerAacal 

 grooves in front and behind, and formed by punctuations in lines ; 

 punctuations large, not very numerous, more numerous outside of 

 the lateral grooves, about a score in the median area ; a few very fine 

 punctuations near the lateral margins. Eyes similar to those of the 

 male, situated slightly in front of the lateral angles, bordered on 

 the inner margin by four large punctuations. Dorsal surface with 

 a few very short hairs ; two deep marginal grooves ; three longitudinal 

 grooves, the median of which is confined to flie posterior (jiiarter, the 

 ■other two are symmetrical, extending from the posterior margin, and 

 widening out in front they join the poslero-lateral margin of the 

 shield; the festoons are very distinct. The ventral surface has the 

 grooves well formed, punctuations fine; a very few short hairs. 

 Peritrenies wide, sub-triangular (oval with an outer prolongation), 

 whitish in colour. Rostrum 1.2 mm. long. Dorsal surface of base 

 nearly three times as wide as long, half as wide as the dorsal shield, 

 the lateral projecting angles near the middle of the length, the 

 posterior angles wide, and not projecting, scarcely passing beyond 

 the margin ; porose areas oval, nearly tw^ce as long as wide, parallel, 

 separated by a distance equal to their small diameter. Hy postome 

 as in the male. Palpi more than twice as long as wide ; the second 

 article longer than wide, and longer than the third article, prolonged 

 in a short retrograde spine on its posterior ventral margin. Legs 

 long, not so strong as those of the male. Coxae I as in the male, 

 .spines just as strong; coxae II, III, and lY with two short flat 

 spines, diminishing in size from coxae II to IV, on the last of which 

 they are small and widely separated ; second article of the first pair 

 of legs as in the male. The other articles (tarsi included) longer 

 and not so thick as in the male. 



Described from two males and two females collected at Pretoria 

 on Erinaceus frontalis, Bennett, by C. W. Howard. 



Observatioxs. 



I recently described,* under the name of lilt i pice plial us gladiger, 

 a species which has many characters analagous to this. I 

 remarked then that the form and size of coxae IV of the male placed 

 it near to Dermacentor ; the anal shields are so slightly chitinized 

 that one could consider them as lacking, a fact which increases the 

 resemblance to the male Dermacentor. It seems that, as in that 

 genus, the chitinous sexual organs are concentrated in coxae IV, 

 instead of in the posterior part of the ventral surface. But the form 

 of the rostrum, especially in the female, made me place the species 

 in the genus Ehipicephahis. 



In the early part of December, 1907, I received from Mr. C, W. 

 Howard the specimens which are the types of Rhipicentor vicinvs. 

 In this species one cannot deny the absence of anal shields in the 

 male, and, as Mr. Howard remarked to me, it ought to have some 



* L. G. Xeuiiiaini. Notes sur les Txodides, VI. Areliives de Parasitoloo-ie. toI XIT. lOOS, 



p. 



