L. E. Robinson and J. Davidson 
21 
which are scattered over this zone. The indiscriminate transportation 
of poultry is, without question, the explanation of this world-wide 
dispersion of the species. Its original fatherland is more than doubtful. 
The specific name “persicus” is accounted for by the fact that the 
earliest accounts of the species are derived from the writings of 
Europeans who made a temporary residence or travelled in Persia, in 
the second decade of the nineteenth century^; yet it is very questionable 
to suppose that Persia is the original source from which the species has 
been disseminated. The far-reaching invasions of the ancient Persians 
took them to many countries in which Argas persicus now prevails; 
and, in consequence, there is as great a probability that the tick was 
imported into Persia, as there is for the assumption that it is an 
indigenous species. 
The economics of the species have been the subject of many con¬ 
tributions to the literature, the majority of which deal principally with 
1 See Oken (1818), also Fischer de Waldheim (1823), and Laboulbeue, A., and 
M^gnin, P. (1882). 
