(21 
REPOR'rS  OF  I'HF:  I'WEN'I  Y-FIRS'F 
EXPEDITION  OF  THE  LIVERPOOL, 
SCHOOL  OF  TROPICAL  MEDICINE 
JAMAICA,  1908-1909 
Sec  tiox  I 
MEDICAL  AND  ECONOMIC 
ENTOMOLOGY 
BY 
ROBERT  NEWSTEAD,  M.Sc,  A.L.S.,  &c. 
{Received  for  publication  21  June^  iQOQ) 
Part  I 
TICKS  AND  OTHER  BLOOD-SUCKING  ARTHROPODA. 
TICKS  (IXODOIDEA) 
One  of  the  greatest  problems  which  confronts  the  pen  keepers 
of  Jamaica  is  the  eradication  or  control  of  those  ticks  which  by  their 
vast  numbers  have  rendered  nearly  all  the  grazing  districts  of  the 
Island  insufferable  to  man  and  a  veritable  plague  to  his  domesticated 
animals.  For  forty  years  or  so,  these  pests  seem  to  have  been  rapidly 
increasing,  and  to-day  they  swarm  in  incredible  numbers  and  are  a 
menace  to  the  stock-raising  industry  of  the  country.  The  more 
serious  nature  of  their  presence  is,  however,  the  fact  that  at  least  one 
of  the  species  is  responsible  for  the  transmission  of  disease  from  the 
sick  to  the  healthy  animal ;  and  the  losses  already  occasioned  by  the 
death  of  cattle  from  the  disease  tran.smitted  by  the  so-called  Texas- 
fever  tick  {Mar  gar  opus  annulatus  australis)  justify  the  most 
energetic  attempts  towards  the  control  if  not  the  extermination  of  this 
pest,  as  well  as  those  species  which  also  cause  serious  loss  by  gross 
tick  infestation. 
The  first  investigation  of  the  tick  problem  in  Jamaica  was 
conducted  by  the  late  Professor  Williams,  whose  report  is  published 
DD 
i;. 
1 
