Page images
PDF
EPUB

HY ALOMMA SPECIES NO. 2 NEAR EXCAVATUM

(Figures 335 to 338)

DISTRIBUTION

EGYPT, including Sinai, and LIBYA (H.H. collection). PALES TINE (various lots in BMNH identified as "H. excavatum large race" HH det.). MOROCCO (Lot 08-23-10-13 in BMNH, HH det.). CANARY ISLANDS (Nuttall lot 3226 in BMNH, HH det.). YEMEN (HH, ms.).

HOSTS

Known hosts of adults are camels and cattle. In Egypt, im mature stages (reared to adults) have been taken from spiny mice, Acomys russatus, at 5000 feet altitude in Sinai; lesser gerbils, G. g. gerbillus, near Cairo; and fat sandrats, Psammomys o. obesus, in saline desert areas on the Mediterranean littoral and beside the Nile Delta.

BIOLOGY

Biological and life history data will be presented separately (HH, ms.). It is notable that in Egypt we find this species only in certain desert situations from sea level to 5000 feet elevation but never in cultivated areas.

REMARKS

"Species number 2 is a large race or species closely related to H. excavatum but differing from it in color and size. The size is even greater than that of "species number 1" but the color is similar.

Recently Mr. Glen M. Kohls of the Rocky Mountain Laboratory kindly sent us the Schulze collection of "H. anatolicum for study. The bulk of this material conforms exactly to Hyalomma species no. 2 near excavatum". Although a surprising mixture of

other species, H. marginatum, H. rufipes, H. detritum, H. excavatum, and ticks of other genera are included in the same vials, the pre sent species may be considered as "H. anatolicum (sensu Schulze)". It is, however, far from certain that this is the same species that contemporary Soviet workers are labelling H. anatolicum. Feldman Muhsam (1954) states that the type specimen of H. anatolicum "seems to be lost". The true identity of this name, there fore, should be difficult to establish. She also considers H. anatolicum specimens in the Schulze collection as "within the range of variation of H. excavatum a conclusion not corroborated by present rearing studies. Kratz (1940) also indicated that the type specimen of H. anatolicum was lost, and suggested that his mentor, Schulze, applied this name because of the frequency of this species in collections from Anatolia. It is obvious that the complicated problem of identity and of species and subspecies related to the present form will require a considerable amount of study before valid and firm conclusions can be drawn. Typical specimens of "H. anatolicum (sensu Schulze)" in the Schulze col lection are from Macedonia, Anatolia, Skyros and Thassos Islands (Greece), Egypt, and Rio de Oro. A male from Kabete, Kenya, is also included; this range is difficult to explain, except on the basis of accidental introduction, and bears further investigation. Hosts of typical specimens are cattle, horses, camels, sheep, and an antelope (Rio de Oro).

The presence of this species in the northwestern area of Africa appears well established by reason of representatives from Morocco and Canary Islands in British Museum (Natural History) collections, from Rio de Oro in the Schulze collection (Rocky Mountain Laboratory), and from Libya in the HH collection.

IDENTIFICATION

Male. The scutum measures from 4.28 mm. to 5.12 mm. in length and from 2.66 mm. to 3.52 mm. in width, thus being con siderably larger than H. excavatum (for measurements, see page 451). It is colored as in "species number 1" and slightly more punctate than either of the other two species; the caudal de pression is more rugose and more densely furnished with mixed, contiguous punctations than in H. excavatum but its characteris tic outline is the same in both species and pronounced elevated ridges border it. Lateral grooves are like those of H. excavatum, but may appear to be continued slightly more anteriorly due to the presence of several large punctations in line with them.

The

spiracular plate is very slightly larger than that of H. excavatum but otherwise similar to it.

Female. The scutum measures from 2.09 mm. to 2.61 mm. in length and from 2.04 mm. to 2.42 mm. in width, thereby exceeding the size of that of the largest specimen of H. excavatum. Spec imens of the present species measuring less than 2.23 mm. by 2.14 mm. are rare; 2.33 mm. by 2.23 mm. is a common ratio. The genital apron is like that of H. excavatum but the scutum is colored as in "species number I" and is slightly more punctate than that of the other two species.

HY ALOMMA MARGINATUM

OLENEV (1931B). USSR. USSR. As H. marginatum, H. marginatum olenevi, and H. marginatum subsp.: descriptions and notes.

KURCHATOV & KALMIKOV (1934). USSR.

distribution records from 1932.

As H. marginatum balcanicum:

KURCHATOV (1935). USSR. H. marginatum, collecting records. KURCHATOV (19398). USSR, Crimea. H. marginatum. Details of life cycle, seasonal incidence, and host preferences conform to those of other authors and of this author in other papers. Addi tional interesting facts are also provided. In laboratory rearing, the length of the life cycle is in direct proportion to temperature range (7°C. to 37°C.) but the length of life (? of unfed ticks - ? stage) is in inverse proportion to temperature. Temperatures of from 7°C. to 10°C. and 42°C. are unfavorable; the range from 22°C. to 27°C. is most favorable with relative humidity from 75 to 100%. Engorged nymphs tolerate any relative humidity from zero to 100% and temperature from 7°C. to 42°C.; in this respect they exceed other stages. Larvae and nymphs are most active in Crimean foothills during the summer-autumn period in the morning and evening (24°C. to 30°C., RH 50% to 75%). In temperatures over 30°C., most ticks hide in shady places and some burrow into the soil. At night temperatures below 21°C. or 22°C. and also with high relative humidity and strong winds almost no tick activity is noticed. The northern limits where this tick is common is from 46°C. to 49°C. northern latitude (annual iso therm 9°C.). Cattle are rarely infested in summer in open semideserts and deserts. Most heavily infested areas are lowlands and foothills of steppes, forested steppes, and low mountain forest zones. High mountain belts are rarely infested. The fact that immature stages attack migrating birds may account for finding this tick rarely in northern latitudes.

[blocks in formation]

MARKOV, ABUSALIMOV, & DZASOKHOV (1939). USSR. As H. marginatum; epizootic piroplasmosis of swine; transmission not achieved.

KURCHATOV (1940G). USSR. H. marginatum; an extensive review of biological and ecological information; not yet translated. SERDYUKOVA (1941). USSR. As H. marginatum. See H. excavatum page 878. Also: Transovarial transmission of spirochetes does not occur, whether when attempted by injection of emulsified eggs or when F1 larvae or nymphs from infected females are allowed to feed on guineapigs.

DEMIDOV, STARUKHIN, & DMITRIEV (1944). USSR. H. marginatum infests stabled horses in North Caucasus during the winter and may infect them with Nuttallia equi at that time. ABRAMOV (1949). USSR. H. marginatum in relation to equine piroplasmosis (P. caballi).

ABRAMOV, TSAPRUN, & LEBEDEV (1950). USSR. Importance of H. marginatum as transmitter of equine piroplasmosis.

PERVOMAISKY (1950B). USSR. As H. p. plumbeum: females mated with males of H. anatolicum excavatum feed normally, become enlarged, and Iay normal quantity of eggs, which are in fertile. When male H. p. plumbeum fertilize female H. anatolicum excavatum, from 20% to 100% of the eggs are fertile; the majority of F1 females have maternal traits, the majority of the F1 males have combined maternal and paternal traits. When "extremely normal" F1 males and females were mated, the progeny consisted of 61 gynandromorphs in a batch of 435 individuals see also R. sangui neus, page 910, and Pervomaisky (1954).7

PERVOMAISKY (1954). USSR. As H. p. plumbeum: males vary from 3.2 mm. to 6.3 mm. in length and from 1.8 mm. to 3.6 mm. in width. Three types of scutal punctations are observed on individual specimens, (1) most common, numerous, even ly distributed minute among large, (2) common, numerous minute, (3) on small males, minute and large mixed. The middle festoon is narrow, the tail of the spiracular plate is wide, and the inner margin of the ad anal shield is slightly extended. The female size is quite variable and scutal punctation varies as among males, but diagnos tic characters are "relatively constant."

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

Figures 337 and 338, o, dorsal and ventral views.

A, Q, genital area. B to D, 9, genital apron, outline and profile. B and C, unengorged. D, engorged.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »