ORNITHODOROS 



707 



M.ov^\iQ\og^ ,—Oynithodoros without eyes, body oval, a little wider behind 

 than in front, with a slight constriction between the third and fourth legs ; 

 colour varies with age from yellow-brown to dusky brown. Integument 

 covered with irregular hemispherical prominences. Capitulum embedded in 

 an infundibuliform earner ostome. Mandible with external apophyses, with 

 two wide]}'- separated teeth, and an internal apophysis, which is bidentate. 

 Hypostome not much -wider at the base than at the anterior third. Dorsum 

 of the body marked by two short transverse grooves posteriorly and three 

 pairs of pits, from each of which a sulcus runs backwards and inwards. 



The ventral surface shows a well-marked pre-anal sulcus, which joins the 

 supracoxal groove, as in S. savignyi ; behind the anus are three pairs of 

 longitudinal grooves. The stigmata are semilunar, situate above the supra- 

 coxal groove. The last segment of the fourth pair of legs is stout and com- 

 pressed, with three knobs, the distance between the first and second being 

 equal to that between the second and third. 



Tibiae and tarsi of the first three pairs of legs, with three teeth — proximal, 

 submedian, and distal, the last being conical. 



Life-History.— The female laj/s a variable number of eggs, from 

 70 to 139, which adhere together, and are golden-brown in colour; 

 881 by 776 yb. Inside these eggs the larvae develop and moult, 

 becoming n37mph9e, which hatch about the twentieth day at a 

 temperature of 20° to 30° C. and a humidity of 71 to 77 per cent. 

 After three or four days these nymphse suck blood. At first the 

 position of the stigma is marked by only a small white spot and 

 pit, but after the first moult this becomes clear. The genital pore 

 is always absent until after the second moult. 



The adult tick moults after each feed of blood, and may Hve 

 about a year. They are night feeders, and rather resemble bugs 

 in their habits. Leishman observed that the fluid secreted by the 

 coxal glands prevents coagulation of the blood. 



Pathogenicity. — It is the spreader of Spiroschaudinnia duttoni, 

 and according to Wellman andFeldmann possibly of Acanthocheilo- 

 nema perstans. 



Fig. 322. — Ornitkodoros moubata 

 Murray : Female, Dorsal As- 

 • PECT. (X 4-) 



Fig. 323. — Ornitkodoros moubata 

 Murray : Female, Ventral 

 Aspect. (X 4-) 



