Annals op the Transvaal Museum. 
171 
Female. — Body oval, 6 min. long* (rostrum included), 3 mm. 
wide, sides convex. Shield scarcely longer (2.5 mm.) than wide 
■(2.3 mm.), irregularly oval, deep chestnut brown; cervical grooves 
•deep in front, prolonged almost to the posterior margin; lateral 
grooves deep and wide, each joining the corresponding cervical 
grooves in front and behind, and formed by punctuations in lines ; 
punctuations large, not very numerous, more numerous outside of 
the lateral grooves, about a score in the median area ; a few very fine 
punctuations near the lateral margins. Eyes similar to those of the 
male, situated slightly in front of the lateral angles, bordered on 
the inner margin by four large punctuations. Dorsal surface with 
a few very short hairs ; two deep marginal grooves ; three longitudinal 
grooves, the median of which is confined to the posterior quarter, the 
■other two are symmetrical, extending from the posterior margin, and 
widening out in front they join the postero-lateral margin of the 
shield ; the festoons are very distinct. The ventral surface has the 
grooves well formed, punctuations fine; a very few short hairs. 
Peritremes wide, sub-triangular (oval with an outer prolongation), 
whitish in colour. Rostrum 1.2 mm. long. Dorsal surface of base 
nearly three times as wide as long, half as wide as the dorsal shield, 
the lateral projecting angles near the middle of the length, the 
posterior angles wide, and not projecting, scarcely passing beyond 
the margin ; porose areas oval, nearly twice as long as wide, parallel, 
separated by a distance equal to their small diameter. Hypostome 
as in the male. Palpi more than twice as long as wide ; the second 
article longer than wide, and longer than the third article, prolonged 
in a short retrograde spine on its posterior ventral margin. Legs 
long, not so strong as those of the male. Coxae I as in the male, 
spines just as strong; coxae II, III, and IV with two short flat 
spines, diminishing in size from coxae II to IV, on the last of which 
Ihey are small and widely separated ; second article of the first pair 
of legs as in the male. The other articles (tarsi included) longer 
and not so thick as in the male. 
Described from two males and two females collected at Pretoria 
<on Erinaceus frontalis, Bennett, by C. W. Howard. 
Observations. 
I recently described , * under the name of Rhipicephalus gladiger, 
a species which has many characters analagvrus to this. I 
remarked then that the form and size of coxae IV of the male placed 
it near to Dermacentor ; the anal shields are so slightly chitinized 
that one could consider them as lacking, a fact which increases the 
resemblance to the male Dermacentor . It seems that, as in that 
genus, the chitinous sexual organs are concentrated in coxae IV, 
instead of in the posterior part of the ventral surface. But the form 
of the rostrum, especially in the female, made me place the species 
in the genus Rliipicephalus. 
In the early part of December, 190T, I received from Air. C. W. 
Howard the specimens wdiicli are the types of Rhipicentor vicinus. 
In this species one cannot deny the absence of anal shields in the 
male, and, as Mr. Howard remarked to me, it ought to have some 
*L. G-. Neumann. Notes sur les Ixodides, VI. Archives de Parasitoloeie, vol XIT. 1908, 
P- 8- 
