39 
THE PROCESS OE COPULATION IN 
OBNITHODORUS MOUBATA. 
By GEORGE H. F. NUTTALL, F.R.S. and 
GORDON MERRIMAN. 
{Fro7n the Quick Laboratory, University of Cambridge.) 
(With one Text-Figure.) 
Although the literature on ticks is very extensive, we have failed 
to find any satisfactory description therein of the process of copulation. 
Most authors state that the male mouthparts are introduced into the 
female genital orifice, or vulva, and that this constitutes copulation, 
leaving it to the reader’s imagination to determine how the seminal 
secretion gains access to the female generative organs. The mechanism 
of copulation, in other word.s, remains to be described, and we propose, 
in this paper, to give an account of what we have observed in Ornitho- 
dorus moubata. We shall describe the process in Ixodidae in a later 
paper, but may state here that, as far as our knowledge goes, it is 
essentially the same as in moubata, that is, impregnation takes place by 
means of spermatophores. * 
We have repeatedly observed the process in moubata in Cambridge, 
and the description which follows is based on the study of several pairs 
in copulation. When a male and female moubata, which are ready to 
copulate, are placed in a dish, the male creeps about upon the female 
and presently seeks to creep beneath her, usually to one side between 
the second and third legs. The posterior part of the female’s body is 
now raised, and the male adyances so as to bring his body into line with 
the female’s, the ventral surfaces of the pair being apposed. The male 
clings with his legs to the basal joints of the female’s legs, his pair I in 
