10 
THE BIOLOGY OF AMBLYOMMA DISSI MILE KOCH. 
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF ITS POWER OF REPRODUCING 
PARTHENOGENETICALLY 1 . 
By Cl. E. BODKIN, B.A., Dip. Agric. (Cantab.), F.Z.S., F.E.S., 
Government Economic Biologist, British Guiana. 
(With Plate II and 1 Text-figure.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
Amblyomma dissimile Koch is well known to science and previous accounts 
of its biology have already appeared. Newstead (1909) made some observations 
on its habits in Jamaica. Hooker, Bishopp, and Wood (1912) give an exact 
account of its life cycle worked out in confinement in the Southern United 
States of America. These authors do not refer to the occurrence of partheno¬ 
genesis in this species. 
Fig. 1. Amblyomma dissimile Koch, $, capitulum and scutum, x 15. 
Parthenogenesis has not hitherto been recorded in A. dissimile. No previous 
work has been done on the life histories of ticks in British Guiana. 
Parthenogenesis has been recorded by Aragao (1912) in Brazil in Ambly¬ 
omma agamum Aragao. In this instance the male of the species has never been 
seen. In British Guiana, as will presently be described, the males of 
1 Published by permission of the Director of Science and Agriculture, B. Guiana. 
