ACCIDENTAL PARASITISM OF A TICK 
BY A TICK 
By George Axastos 
Biological Laboratories, Harvard University 
A case of a tick feeding on another tick was recently 
observed amongst a lot of several thousand ticks taken 
off domestic animals in the Netherlands East Indies, and 
sent for study by Dr. P. C. Kraneveld of the Bacterioloog 
Veeartsenijkundig Instituut, Buitenzorg, Java. A par- 
tially engorged female Rhipicephalus hcemaphysaloides 
paulopunctatus Neumann had its hypostome deeply in- 
serted in the ventral surface of the abdomen of a fully 
engorged female Bodphilus microplus (Canestrini). The 
vial containing these two specimens listed the host as a 
cow from Batavia, Java; so it would appear that the 
Bodphilus was attached and feeding on the cow at the 
time it was collected. 
This should be considered a case of accidental parasit- 
ism. It cannot well be called “cannibalism” since it in- 
volves ticks not only of different species but even of 
different genera. The cases called “cannibalism” by 
previous authors concerned individuals of the same 
species only. 
A survey of the literature has revealed the following 
cases known as “cannibalism”: C. A. Barber (1895, Na- 
ture 52, p. 199) figures a male Amblyomma variegatum 
( Hyalomma venustum) attached to the posterior end of a 
female of the same species. Hunter and Hooker (1907, 
Bur. Ent. Bull. 72, p. 35) reported finding in a lot of live 
ticks from southwest Texas a female cattle tick, Bodphilus 
annulatus, with its mouthparts inserted in another tick 
(sex not given). Hooker, Bishopp, and Wood (1912, 
Bur. Ent. Bull. 106, p. 32) found amongst specimens sent 
to their laboratory a male Bodphilus annulatus ( Mar - 
gar opus annulatus) with its hypostome inserted into the 
side of an engorged female. Wood in two instances ob- 
served in the laboratory Ornithodoros turicata adults 
attaching and feeding on recently fed adults of the same 
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