HAFMAPHY SALIS BEQUAERTI Hoogstraal, 1956(A). These records of H. bequaerti, from Torit District on the east bank of the Nile and from the far southwestern corner of the Sudan, are the only ones from this country. DISTRIBUTION H. bequaerti of Kenya and the Sudan is the most northern rep resentative of three African hyrax-parasitizing ticks. The other two are H. orientalis Nuttall and Warburton, 1915 (= H. zambeziae Santos Dias, 1954) of Nyasaland and Mozambique, and H. cooleyi Bedford, 1929, of the Union of South Africa. For further details, see Hoogstraal (1956A). EAST AFRICA: SUDAN (As Haemaphysalis sp. nov.: Hoogstraal 1954B. As H. bequaerti sp. nov.: Hoogstraal 1956A). UGANDA and KENYA (Hoogstraal 1956A). HOSTS Hyraxes: Heterohyrax brucei hoogstraali, Procavia habessinica slatini, and P. capensis meneliki (Hoogstraal 1956A). BIOLOGY H. bequaerti in all its stages is apparently strictly hostspecific on hyraxes. A rather large number of hyraxes examined in southern Sudan, Kenya, Yemen, Sinai, and the Eastern Desert of Egypt yielded no haemaphysalids other than the ones listed above. It would appear that this tick spends rather little time feeding and that, except possibly locally, hyrax-parasitizing haemaphysalids are rare in nature. DISEASE RELATIONS Unstudied. It is of interest to conjecture that this tick might be the vector of the piroplasm Echinozoon hoogstraali Garn ham, 1951, found in the blood of the Equatoria Province hosts. IDENTIFICATION Males: This is a small species, varying from 1.66 mm. to 1.88 mm. in overall length and from 0.99 mm. to 1.22 mm, in width. It superficially resembles the ubiquitous H. leachii but may be easily differentiated from the subspecies muhsami and even more easily from the subspecies leachii by the short, broad, bluntly rounded ventral spur of palpal segment 3, the greater lateral concavity of the palpi, the reduction of basal palpal spurs and of coxal spurs, the few, short hairs on the coxae, and other characters. The scutum has moderately numerous punctations, which are shallow, coarse, nondiscrete, mostly large, and widely scattered over the surface; cervical grooves faint to obsolete; lateral grooves enclosing first and second pairs of festoons (extension beside second festoon may be faint or obsolete), extending to anterior fourth of scutum. The coxae are only weakly armed with slight ridges and bear at most six small hairs; the tarsi taper gradually but may be more abruptly tapered in small specimens. The basis capituli diverges widely anteriorly and has bluntly pointed cornua about one fourth as long as the basis capituli. The palpi are short and salient with a weakly produced basolateral angle and a concave lateral margin; the ventral spur of segment 3 is short, wide and bluntly rounded. Females: In this sex, the capitulum is like that of the male except for the more elongate palpi and generally smaller cornua. The scutum is slightly longer than wide and posteriorly is rather abruptly narrowed and pointed; the cervical grooves extend to the scutal midlength; punctations are indistinct, shallow, large and medium size, few in number. Other characters recall those of the male. As in the male, the short, wide, bluntly rounded ventral spur of palpal segment 3 is a most important character in separating this species from H. leachii subspp., as are the short hairs of the coxae and the scutal shape. The larva and nymph have been described by Hoogstraal (1956A). In Torit District, we closely examined over 200 each francolins and Uganda tufted guineafowl (Numida meleagris major), and many other birds, without finding additional specimens of this tick, It would appear, therefore, that H. hoodi hoodi is uncommon in the savannah of eastern Sudan. DISTRIBUTION IN THE SUDAN Bahr El Ghazal: One from tchagra shrike, Tchagra senegalo remigialis, Guar, Gogrial Šubdistrict, February, 1953, Ahmed Mohamed El Sayed legit (HH collection). This and the Torit collections are the only Sudanese records of this avian parasite. DISTRIBUTION The African avian haemaphysalid ranges through tropical Africa and into southern Africa, but is possibly more common in western Africa and Uganda than elsewhere. A related subspecies, madagas cariensis Colas Belcour and Millot, 1948, occurs on Madagascar and other closely related species form a tight complex in the Oriental Region (Hoogstraal 1953Ē). WEST AFRICA: GAMBIA (Warburton and Nuttall 1909). GOLD COAST (Nuttall and Warburton 1915). FRENCH WEST AFRICA (Villiers 1955). SIERRA LEONE (Simpson's 1913 record of H. leachii from a bush shrike possibly refers to H. hoodi hoodi. Nuttall and Warburton 1915). PORTUGUESE GUINEA (Tendeiro 1947,1948,1951C,D, 1952A,C,D). |