SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



429 



The specimens of Rhipicephalus annulatus Say {Ixodes {Boophilus) bovis) were 

 kindly furnished through Mr. C. P. Lounsbury by Dr. L. O. Howard, entomologist, 

 U. S. A., Dr. M. Francis, of Texas, and Prof. H. A. Morgan, of Baton Rouge, La. 

 The Australian form and a few from South America, which prove to be identical with 

 it were very kindly sent to me by my friends, Messrs. P. R. Gordon, chief inspector 

 of stock, and C. J. Pound, director of the stock institute, Queensland. 



The local Blue Tick, of which I have specimens from eastern and western parts 

 of the colony, I regard as Rhipicephalus decoloratus, an insufficiently described spe- 

 cies of Koch. Koch's description of this species is so meager that it is impossible to 

 gather more from it than that he had a single specimen from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, which was, judging from the color, an unimpregnated and undersized female. 

 He figures the shield with two furrows, dividing it into three regions, the median 

 yellow, the laterals red; and it is this feature, also noticed by Neumann, who had 

 the opportunity of studying the original type, which has chiefly guided me in deter- 

 mining the species as decoloratus, there being no other species recorded from South 

 Africa, or known to me, which possesses the same coloration of the dorsal shield. 



The Australian species, also sent as from South America, is quite distinct from 

 either the North American or the South African, and is therefore looked upon as a 

 new species, for which the name australis, by which it is subsequently referred to, is 

 proposed.^ 



The genus Rhipicephalus, to which the above species belong, has been reviewed 

 by Professor Neumann, in an excellent treatise entitled a " Revision de la Famille 

 des Ixodes,"^ a work that has been of the greatest assistance in making these com- 

 parisons, so that it is with great regret that I find that I am at variance on one or 

 two points with this most learned savant. 



The genus, as may be gathered from the revision just quoted, contains some six- 

 teen recognizable species which may be readily divided into two well-defined groups 

 by referring to the number of furrows in the dorsal shield of the adult female; there 

 being two in some species and four in others. The ticks under discussion belong to 

 the former group, which appears to contain six species, namely, annidatus and 

 Neumann's variety, caudatus (which I am prepared to regard as a distinct species), 

 Evertsi, pulchellus, decoloratus, and the Australian-South American form, australis. Of 

 these only annulatus, decoloratus, and australis have been studied directly, the char- 

 acters of the rest being those given by Neumann, which are excellent descriptions, 

 my North American specimens fully according with that of annulatus, except as 

 regards the smaller process of the mandibles. This minute but important feature 

 Neumann describes as being in the form of a simple cone; with this I do not agree, 

 as, in the specimens I have examined, it is distinctly bicuspid, the additional tooth 

 being often difficult to detect, as it is implanted at right angles to the more promi- 

 nent one. The species is also credited with a very large geographical distribution, 

 which includes parts of America and the West Indies, Australia, Asia, Sumatra, and 

 Africa. I, however, have failed to find it among such ticks as I have from South 

 America, Australia, and Cape Colony. 



^Mr. H. Tryon, entomologist to the Queensland department of agriculture, had 

 already in an official report on the subject of the identity of this tick, on 1st Feb- 

 ruary, 1899, pronounced on the distinctness of the Queensland cattle tick-from Ixodes 

 bovis. This officer, in the report alluded to, stated as follows: "These ticks are 

 undoubtedly examples of Ixodes bovis, or rather of the Queensland variety of it, 

 regarding which it may be stated that this differs slightly, as would appear from the 

 typical form." — Ed. Q. A. J. 



2 Memoires de la Societe Zoologique de France, Vol. IX, page 1, 1896, and Vol. X, 

 page 324, 1897. 



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