S12 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
ARGANTIDAE 
(Argasidae) 
Ornithodoros moubata (Andr. Murray) 
Argas moubata Andr. Murray, 1877, ‘Economic Entomology, Aptera,’ I, p. 182, fig. (Angola). 
Ornithodoros moubata Neumann, 1911, ‘Das Tierreich, Lief. 26, Acarina, Ixodidae,’ p. 123. Nuttall 
and Warburton, 1908, ‘Ticks, Part I, Argasidae,’ p. 46, figs. 58 and 66-80, and pp. 96-101 (<" 2, 
nymph, larva, egg). Dénitz, 1910, Denkschr. Med.-Naturw. Ges. Jena, XVI, p. 419. 
Ornithodoros savignyi var. caecus Neumann, 1901, Mém. Soc. Zool. France, XIV, p. 256 (from many 
African localities). 
Ornithodorus moubata Nuttall, 1916, Bull. Ent. Res., VI, 4, p. 315, fig. 4(@). Cunliffe and Nuttall, 
1921, Parasitology, XIII, pp. 327-347, Pl. XVI (o# 9). 
Breucian Coneo.— Uvira; Irumu; Ruchuru. Common in huts and rest- 
houses. According to Dr. Lejeune, it also exists in the region of Albertville. 
TANGANYIKA TERRITORY.— Mdjengo’s, Singida; and Bukoba (Arthur 
Loveridge). 
From a medical point of view, Ornithodoros moubata is the most important 
tick of Africa, since it is the carrier of a blood spirochaete, Treponema duttoni 
(Novy and Knapp), which causes African relapsing fever, an extremely dan- 
gerous human disease. In tropical Africa the distribution of the tick co- 
incides with that of the disease, since most of the specimens are infected with 
the spirochaete, which is transmitted within the eggs of the tick. In localities 
where the tick occurs, the adult natives generally are immune against the 
disease, but newcomers when bitten hardly ever fail to contract the fever. 
There can be little doubt that O. moubata was originally a tick of the arid 
and semi-arid regions of East Africa, where it still occurs in the open (as ob- 
served by Brumpt and others), travelling over the soil even in mid-day, and 
where it also inhabits the burrows of various animals, especially of warthog.? 
From East Africa it appears to have been carried westward and southward 
by man (especially by the East African Arab traders), its migrations being 
aided probably by the present general tendency toward desiccation of tropical 
Africa. Moreover, over much of its present area it is found as a rule in native 
buildings only, where it is protected against excessive humidity. Cunliffe (1921) 
has shown experimentally that an excess of moisture is decidedly unfavorable 
to the vitality of this tick. As indicated on the accompanying map, it has 
hardly entered the West African and Congo rain forest, where it occurs only 
in a few of the larger clearings of the Ituri Basin.? It is difficult, from published 
information, to trace its southern and northwestern limits. There are definite 
locality records from northern Zululand (C. Fuller, 1924) and Namaqualand 
(between Narubis and Hasuur, in about 27° lat. 8., according to Tromms- 
dorff, 1914), and that it exists in Bechuanaland, Orange Free State, and north- 
ern Transvaal is beyond doubt; but I find no record of its occurrence south of 
1 Lloyd, L. 1915. ‘On the association of warthog and the nkufu tick (Ornithodorus moubata).’ 
Ann. Trop. Med. Paras., IX, pp. 559-560. 
2 Bequaert, J. 1919. ‘L’Ornithodorus moubata dans le Nord-Est du Congo Belge.’ Bull. Soc. Path. 
Exot. Paris, XII, pp. 517-520. 
Rodhain, J. 1919. ‘Remarques au sujet de la biologie de l’Ornithodorus moubata.’ C. R. Soe. Biol. 
Paris, LX XXII, pp. 937-940. 
