98 
Biology of Ixodidae 
Summary. 
Haemaphysalis leachi requires three hosts upon which to feed during 
its larval, nymphal and adult stages. It readily attaches itself to the 
host at each stage in about a week after ecdysis. It is easily reared 
under experimental conditions upon a number of different hosts (jackal, 
dog, ferret, hedgehog, goat, rabbit), and it appears to be immaterial 
upon which of these hosts it feeds. The larva and nymph remain 
attached to the host for 3-7 days (2-3 days, Lounsbury), occasionally 
longer; the females remain attached longer, i.e. 8-16 days. The males 
may remain upon the host for many weeks (according to Lounsbury). 
The temperature of the air within the limits observed (9-23° C.) appears 
to exert little or no influence upon the time the tick remains upon the 
host, the warmth emanating from the latter being doubtless sufficient 
to keep the ticks active. The time required for metamorphosis^ is 
influenced by temperature, thus the larvae hatch after 26-37 days at 
20° C., in 58 to 80 days at 12-13° C.; the nymphs emerge, as a rule, 
after 30 to 40 days; adults emerge after 15-16 days at 24-26° C., 
whereas they may only emerge after 42-70 days at 14° C. The longevity 
of the unfed tick is considerable when the conditions are favourable ; in 
small corked bottles the larvae were still very active after 169 days, the 
nymphs after 52 days and the adults after about 210 days when 
maintained at about 12° C. When males and females are .simultaneously 
placed upon the host they scatter, but the sexes are found attached in 
close proximity to each other after 2-3 days. Copulation must take 
place upon the host, though it has never been actually observed. 
(Lounsbury has seen males, which he had marked, detach themselves and 
reattach themselves close to females ; a male may mate with more than 
one female.) I find that the males do not seek the females as do Ixodes 
when the sexes have been removed from the host. The time which 
elapses before oviposition commences, after the replete female abandons 
the host, is markedly influenced by temperature; thus, when females 
were placed at 23° C. they began to lay after 3-5 days, at 16-21° C. 
after 14-18 days, at lower temperatures after 24, 47 to 60 days. Whereas 
an occasional female dies as soon as oviposition has ended, others may 
survive for a few days or, in exceptional cases, for a month. The female 
lays from 2400 to 4800 eggs. H. leachi begins to abandon its host on 
the approach of death in a manner that neither Lounsbury nor myself 
have observed in other ticks. 
1 See note on Lonnsbnry’s observations on p. 94. 
