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OBSERVATIONS ON ARGAS BRUMPTI, 
NEUMANN, 1907. 
By NORMAN CUNLIFFE, B.A., 
Student in Medical Entomology. 
(From the Quick Laboratory, University of Cambridge.) 
(With 1 Text-figure.) 
In November 1912, through the courtesy of Mr S. W. J. Scholefield, 
Prof. Nuttall received fourteen living nymphs of Argas brumpti from 
Kitui, British East Africa. As only the adults and later stage nymphs 
of this species are known, an attempt was made to raise the species in 
the laboratory. 
They were fed on a fowl and usually became engorged within an 
hour; during metamorphosis they were kept in an incubator maintained 
at 30° C. 
From these nymphs one female emerged on 22. I. 1913 and four 
males soon after that date. The female was fed on the twelfth and 
seventeenth days after emergence, but although afterwards placed on 
a fowl at intervals of twenty days, it refused to feed again until the 
143rd day after emergence and it has refused to feed since that date. 
It was fertilised on the 13th, 70th, 142nd, 158th and 168th days, 
the males being allowed access to the female twelve days after its 
emergence. 
Eggs were oviposited by the female as follows: 53 eggs between 
99-106 days, 66 eggs between 118-125 days, 21 eggs between 152-156 
days and 18 eggs between 161—166 days after emergence, making a 
total of 158 eggs to the present date (4. xi. 13). 
The number of eggs in each batch and the intervals between the 
periods of oviposition varied considerably. 
