SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



425 



this is the type host, while Florida is the type locality for the species 

 B. annulatus. There is, however, scarcely room for serious doubt 

 regarding its identity with a tick described in 1867 by C. V. Riley, 

 late Entomologist of the U. 8. Department of Agriculture, as a new 

 species, Ixodes hovis; type host, neat 

 cattle; type locality, Missouri. Riley's 

 original diagnosis reads: 



Ixodes hovis (Riley). A reddish, coriaceous, 

 flattened species, with the body oblong-oval, 

 contracted just behind the middle, and with two 

 longitudinal impressions above the contraction 

 and three below it, more especially visible in the 

 dried specimen. Head short and broad, not 

 spined behind, with two deep round pits. Palpi 

 and beak together unusually short, the palpi 

 being slender. Labium [= hypostome] short 

 and broad, densely spined beneath. Mandibles 

 smooth above, with terminal hooks. Thoracic 

 shield distinct, one-third longer than wide, 

 smooth and polished; convex, with the lyrate 

 medial convexity very distinct Legs, long and 

 slender, pale testaceous red; coxas not spined. 

 Length of body, 0.15 of an inch; width, 0.09 of 

 an inch. Missouri Coll., 

 C. V. Riley. 



This is the cattle tick 

 of the Western States. 

 Several hundred speci- 

 mens in different stages 

 of growth have also 

 been received from Pul- 



von, west coast of Nicaragua, taken from the horned cattle, 

 and on a species of dasyprocta, by Mr. J. McNeil. They 

 preserve the elongated flattened form, with the body con- 

 tracted behind the middle, by which this species may be 

 easily identified. The largest specimens measure 0.50 by 

 0.30 of an inch. When gorged with blood they are nearly 

 as thick through as they are broad. In the freshly hatched 

 hexapodous young, and the young in the next stage of 

 growth, the thoracic shield is one-third the size of the whole 

 body, which is pale yellowish, with very distinct crenula- 

 tions on the hinder edge. The fourth pair of legs are added 

 apparently at the first molt. It is called the "garapata" 

 by the inhabitants of Nicaragua. 



In the same departmental publication in which 

 Riley published his description of /. hovis^ 

 Gamgee proposed to call the same tick Ixodes 

 indentatus. No question can arise, therefore, regarding the identity 

 of I hovis and /. indentatus. Packard (1873, p. 740) copied Riley's 

 diagnosis, but gave a figure of the female of a Dermacentor instead 

 of the true /. hovis. He states that Merriam collected /. hovis 



Fig. 149. — A view of claw II of Boophilas 

 australis, same magnification as figs. 147 

 and 148. 



Fig. 15U.— a view of claw 

 II of same; magnification 

 same as figs. 147 and 148. 



