SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REROET. 



419 



C. — Phaulixodes. 



23. Scutum longer than broad, with nearly straight sides (see R. sanguineus) rufus. 



Scutum longer than broad, sides curved (Algeria) plumbeus. 



Scutum as broad as long, sides slightly curved (Sumatra) intermedius. 



Genus Boophilus^ Curtice, 1891. 



Generic diagnosis. — Rhipicephalinpc: Eyes present, often indistinct; base of capit- 

 ulum broader than long, wider than combined width of palpi and haustellmn, hex- 

 agonal on dorsal surface, forming at each side a projecting angle. Palpi short, broad; 

 second and third articles nearly equal, and widest about the middle, where they are 

 drawn out laterally into a sharp angle. Posterior margin of coxa3 I bidentate, though 

 often indistinctly. Stigmal plate round to oval. Male with two pairs of anal 

 clypei. 



Type species. — Boophilus annulatus (Say). 



It can not be definitely stated at present how many species of 

 Boophilus should be recognized. For North America only one form 

 is described, B. anmilcttus, commonly known as B. hovis. Another 

 form, B. australis^ is found in Australia, India, 

 South America, Cuba, and Porto Rico. A third 

 form, B. decoloratus, i,. described from South Af- 

 rica. It has been definitely established by Smith, 

 Kilbourne, Schroeder, and others that B. annulatus 

 is the transmitter of Texas fever in North America. 

 B. australis has been shown to transmit the same 

 disease in Australia, and Schroeder has transmitted 

 Texas fever by means of Porto Rican ticks, which ^.^^ m.-Antero- lateral 

 we look upon as identical with B. australis. Fuller comer, showing (a) pro- 

 believes that B. decoloratus acts as the transmitter ^^^Z -toxlT^lie^l 

 of the fever in South Africa. and (c) antero-ventro- 



Other species have been described for other ^^^Z^^. p'"^''''^'' 

 countries, but it is practically impossible at present 

 to give a reliable opinion as to whether these forms represent true 

 species or geographical varieties or whether they are identical with 

 the above-named species. 



From a practical standpoint of quarantine, however, the difficulties 

 are not so great as they are from a strictly zoological point of view; 

 for since it has been established that the North American, Porto Rican, 

 and Australian forms all transmit. Texas fever, and since, further, this 

 disease also occurs elsewhere, as in South America, South Africa, etc. , 



^ Synonymy and Biblioc4raphy. 



1891: Boophilus Curtice, 1891a, pp. 313-319; type, Ixodes bo vis annulatus. — Idem, 

 1891b, p. 685.— Idem, 1892c, pp. 237-252, pis. i-ii.— Marx, 1892, pp. 235, 

 236.— OsBORN, 1896, p. 257.— Morgan, 1899, pp. 138, 139.— Ward, 1900a, 

 p. 202.— Stiles & Hassall, 1901, pp. 2-4.— Salmon & Stiles, 1901, pp. 419- 

 446. [See also Neumann, 1897, p. 384, as syn. of Rhipicephalus.'] 



1898: ''Boophylis Curtice" of Niles, 1898b, p. 25 (misprint for Boophilus). 



