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WARTHOGS were common in the Forest. Ticks from six hosts

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Discovery of the eyeless tampan, 0. moubata in three warthog burrows in the Forest area is of extreme Interest (pages 121,129, 144,149).

A HIPPOPOTAMUS shot in the Jur River, in the northeastern corner of the Province, in April had nine male and one female R. s. simus on its ears.

GIRAFFES in northeastern Bahr El Ghazal comprise one of the most northern populations of these animals in eastern Africa. The first four hosts on the table (page 813) were taken at Liednhom on the south bank of the Jur River, near the Galual-Nyang Forest where the remainder of the hosts were secured. Data for the num.. ber of giraffes examined but free of ticks were not obtained. The chief tick species infesting thirty hosts are listed in the table on page 813.

There were no significant differences between infestations of male and female hosts. The only ticks in addition to those listed in the table were a male R. s. simus (Host 3), two male A. lepidum (Hosts 8 and 17), and a male R. tricuspis (Host 30).

Inasmuch as cattle passing the boundaries of this area are heavily infested by A. variegatum, the absence of this tick on

seventeen of these giraffes and the light to moderate infestations on the remainder of these animals is noteworthy. These data con tribute to other from this area indicating that the bulk of the variegatum population does not commence reproduction until well into the rainy season (June, July).

The presence of two male A. lepidum on these giraffes is of some interest inasmuch as ecological conditions in Bahr El Ghazal seldom meet this tick's requirements. A. lepidum populations in this Province are either small, rare, and restricted, or else introduced but not thriving. From the fact that only a single male R. s. simus and no R. e. evertsi were taken it would appear that giraffes are not favored hosts of these ticks, which are common on other animals in the area.

The frequency with which both sexes of H. rufipes and of H. truncatum were found on the same hosts from March through June indicates breeding of these species late in the dry season and through the first half of the rains. Data for other seasons are not available. The small amount of data for both sexes of H. truncatum feeding in August may indicate that adults continue to appear and mate throughout the rainy season or else that a second generation has reached adulthood later in the rains.

M. reidi sp. nov. is known only from these collections. Whether it is a typical parasite of giraffes remains to be determined. The small amount of available data suggest that the repro ductive season commences early in the rains.

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Nineteen BUFFALOS in the Forest were infested by 186 ticks, as shown in the table below. Seasonal data for males and females are in general similar to those obtained from ticks infesting giraffes in this area. The low incidence of infestation of these buffalos by H. truncatum is noteworthy.

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Of the ANTELOPES, the TIANG was most common in the Forest area and all specimens observed were tick infested. When we arrived in February, approximately a hundred dried skins of tiang obtained earlier in the dry season were examined. Each bore from one to 23 dead nymphs of A. variegatum, the average number being in the vicinity of ten or twelve. A few dead male H. truncatum and A. varie gatum also remained on the skins. Several hosts secured early in

the rainy season were infested by adult A. variegatum. The high incidence of A. variegatum infestation and the absence of other common ticks Ti.e. R. s. simus, R. e. evertsi, H. rufipes) on the tiang is of interest. Animals examined immediately after death yielded, besides A. variegatum, only a few H. truncatum and B. decoloratus. In April, two pairs of R. tricuspis and a female of H. leachii muhsami were found on one host and in July four males and seven females of H. aciculifer were removed from an other. The latter species also infested a tiang near Tonj (March).

Also noteworthy is the fact that no ticks were found on a number of WATERBUCKS and WHITE EARED KOBS in the Forest. Three ROAN ANTELOPES were infested by (1) two male and a female H. truncatum and the same number of A. variegatum (September), (2) seven male and a female A. variegatum (August), and (3) a male H. truncatum and a nymphal A. variegatum (March). On a HARTE BEEST shot in July, single adults of A. variegatum and B. decolo ratus were found. An ORIBI obtained In June yielded a male R. tricuspis; another, near Tonj in March, two male R. sulcatus.

MAN

Two pairs of adult R. s. simus and nine nymphal A. variegatum were taken engorging on members of our party in the Forest in February. South of Yirol, a female R. sulcatus was taken while crawling on the collector's leg.

DOMESTIC FOWLS

A. persicus is common at Wau, the only locality in which a persicus common at search for this tick has been made.

DOMESTIC MAMMALS

HORSES are attacked chiefly by B. decoloratus and R. e. evertsi; several collections from single hosts contain as many as sixty ticks of each species. One horse at Wau was infested by twenty adult A. variegatum, another at Busseri by eleven adults of this tick as well as by three adult R. tricuspis, and others by single males of H. rufipes.

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