170 
Psyche 
[December 
NOTES ON THE TICK, ORNITHODOROS TALAJE 
(GUER.), INFESTING A HOUSE IN 
THE CANAL ZONE 
By Lawrence H. Dunn 
Medical Entomologist and Assistant Director, 
The Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Panama, R. de P. 
On February 27, 1929, while at Gatun, Canal Zone, I 
learned through conversation with Dr. R. P. Curry, Assis- 
tant Chief Health Officer of the Canal Zone, and Sanitary 
Inspector C. A. Roach, of the Gatun District, that a short 
time previously the occupants of one of the houses at 
Gatun had complained of their quarters being infested 
with ticks that were biting them and causing considerable 
annoyance. They had collected several specimens of these 
ticks and brought them to the office of the District Physi- 
cian at Gatun. From there they were sent to the Board 
of Health Laboratory, at Ancon, Canal Zone, where they 
were identified as Ornithodoros talaje. 
Although I had been giving considerable attention to 
0. talaje in Panama for a number of years, this was the 
first time that I had learned of any definite reports of 
this species attacking man. Neither had I heard of their 
being found in houses in the terminal cities of Panama and 
Colon or in the American villages in the Canal Zone, al- 
though many of the rats captured in these places are 
usually heavily infested with the larval forms of this 
species. Nymphal and adult forms had been collected 
only in native huts in some of the interior villages where 
they were generally found in company with numerous 
Ornithodoros venezuelensis Brumpt. In view of 'these 
facts I was greatly interested to learn of this species 
being present in a dwelling at Gatun and attacking man 
and wishing to observe the conditions that prevailed, Dr. 
