SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



439 



identity of Eh. m.icroplus and Rh. australis does not therefore appear 

 to be excluded. Against such identity, however, may be quoted 

 Canestrini's statement (1890, p. 493) that the scutum of the male covers 

 the entire body. The validity of the Japanese species, with ten rows 

 of teeth, appears not to be without foundation. 



15. — EIGHT KOWS OF DENTICLES ON HYPOSTOME. MALE APPARENTLY WITHOUT TAIL, 

 SIMILAR TO B. ANNULATUS. 



The North African cattle tick.^ 



Megnin (1880) determined as identical with Ixodes Dugesii Gervais, 

 1844, a species of tick from North Africa. Curtice (1892) pointed out 

 the resemblance of this North African form to the North American 

 species, and he and Neumann considered them specificall}^ identical. 

 This view is strongly supported by the description given by Megnin, 

 and from present knowledge it appears impossible to show good char- 

 acters which would separate the two forms. At the same time we 

 prefer to await further detailed comparison of specimens before either 

 agreeing or disagreeing with Curtice and Neumann on this point. 

 Megnin's description reads as follows: 



Characters common to both sexes. — Capitulum small and slightly salient, 0.60 mm. 

 long, in shape of a blunt, very elliptical cone; palpi short, 0.30 mm. long, slightly 

 shorter than the hypostome, slightly valvate, articles very distinct, the first one 

 short, cylindrical, the two following irregularly polyhedric, the last small, cylin- 

 drical, infero-terminal; hypostome a little spatulate, with rounded extremity, and 

 with eight rows of teeth, equal in each row; mandibles sliding each in a rough- 

 skinned sheath, and terminated by an articulated harpoon, with four teeth in two 

 groups, the two teeth of the lower group being larger than those of the terminal 

 group. Legs six-jointed, coxre oval, placated on the tegument, separated in the 

 female, contiguous in the male; articles uniformly brown; tarsi cylindro-conical, with 

 extremity dentated inferiorly in the two sexes, first pair mono-dentate, the others 

 bidentate; terminated by an ambulacrum, the claws of which are twice as long as 

 the pulvillum. 



Fertilized female, young. — Six millimeters long, 2.50 mm. broad; body a pale red 

 color, flattened, elongate, narrowed posteriorily, without festoons, presenting above 

 and below the same furrow^s found in the females of other species. Scutum 1.20 mm. 

 long, 1 mm. broad, rectangulo-pentagonal, narrow and short, with parallel lateral 

 sides, posterior angle rounded, and with sinuous sides of a dull, chagrinous, brown- 

 black color, strongly excavate in front, and in a square, for the articulation with the 

 capitulum; eyes at the external and posterior angles of the scutum. Vulval pore and 

 cutaneous striae the same as in all females of Ixodes. 



Fertilized female, replete. — Fourteen millimeters long, 8 mm. broad, body thick, 



^Synonymy and Bibliography. 



1880: "Ixodes Dugesii Gervais, 1844," of Megnin, 1880, pp. 126, 127, fig. 44b.- 

 Neumann, 1888, pp. 92, 93.— Idem, 1892a, pp. 97, 98.— Idem, 1892b, pp. 100, 

 101. [Given as syn. of Boophilus bonis by Curtice, 1891a, p. 318. — Idem, 

 1891b, p. 685.— Idem, 1892c, pp. 243, 244.— Marx, 1892, p. 236.— Osborn, 

 1896, p. 257.— Morgan, 1899, p. 139.] [See also Neumann, 1897, p. 408, as 

 syn. of Rhipicephalus annulatus.'] 



1894: '^Ixodes Dugesi Gervais" of Dolly, 1894, p. 1000, as syn. of Boophilus bovis. 



