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BEJA AREA

Specialized collecting will probably reveal a small but interesting specialized tick fauna mixed with the Fasher-Butana fauna that exists on the coastal plains and in valleys of the eastern slopes of the Red Sea Hills. This Area might be sub divided into a southern sector containing tropical ticks such as R. e. evertsi and B. decoloratus, species that make their last stand among the hyalommas, R. s. sanguineus, and 0. savignyi. In the north, even these are lost but Hyalomma and R. s. sanguineus populations are denser than in the desert and undiscovered Palaearctic species are expected to occur. The preponderence of Hyalomma species provides this Area with a strongly Palaearctic aspect. Specialized Somali tick fauna of the more southerly coastal plains is not known to reach the Sudan. The composition of tick species that intrude into this Area has some similarity with that further south along the coast but population densities appear to be much lower.

APPENDIX

Additional data and references pertinent to a given species obtained or noticed too late for inclusion in the main body of the text are included herein. For the sake of completeness it is intended that this section be continued in subsequent volumes in an attempt to provide up-to-date information on all species treated.

ARGAS PERSICUS

TASCHENBERG (1873). Egypt. Mention of specimens.

JACK (1910). Southern Rhodesia. Control and general remarks. WILLCOCKS (1922). Egypt. Remarks on habitats, hosts, importance. NICOLLE, ANDERSON, & COLAS BELCOUR (1928D). Tunisia. Local material used for adapting Spanish strain of fowl spira chetes.

OLENEV (1929A,B,1931A, 1934). USSR. Life cycle graphically portrayed in 1931A report; others deal with distribution. GRIMALDI (1934). Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia; collecting localities.

PAVLOVSKY (1940). Abnormality. "A heart-like shape of the body of Argas persicus is described in different degrees of development. Analogous forms are shown in the literature in other ticks also (Amblyomma, Ixodes); it is doubtful that this character, observed in the only tick specimen in hand, should have any taxonomical significance". I should hope not! (HH).

SHARMA (1944). Spermatogenesis briefly described.

CHUMAKOV (1954). USSR.

Isolation of Q fever (R. burnetii).

TENDEIRO (1955). Mozambique. Review of previous reports from colony.

SCHULZE (1955). Discussion of metabolic products.

TAYLOR et al (1955). Egypt. Larvae become infected with Sindbis virus when feeding; nymphs and adults are not susceptible to paraenteral infection.

WALKER, J. B. (Correspondence). Tanganyika. Although no pub
lished records of the fowl tick appear to be available
from this territory, Mr. Evans, formerly Senior Veterinary
Research Officer there, states that it is certainly present
and in fact widespread in Tanganyika.

ARGAS REFLEXUS

OPPERMANN (1935). As A. columbarum:

studies on sperm formation.

MACNAY (1954). Canada. Specimens reported, with other ticks, from a bird's nest in British Columbia. Kohls (correspond ence) finds that these specimens are similar to those referred to as A. reflexus elsewhere in North America.

PETRISHEVA (1955). USSR.
USSR. Presence in certain areas, with res-
pect to control of disease foci.

SCHULZE (1955). As A. columbarum: discussion of metabolic products.

BOETTGER & REICHENBACH KLINKE (1955). Germany. As A. columbarum: well documented and illustrated account of syndrome in person following tickbite.

ZHMAEVA, PCHELKINA, MISHCHENKO, & KARULIN (1955). USSR, Uzbe kistan. Parasite of field sparrows and host and vector of C. burnetii (Q fever).

ARGAS BRUMPTI

MOUCHET, J. (1956 correspondence). Cameroons. A male specimen from a warthog burrow, Waza, North Cameroons, sent for identification, represents the first population known from West Africa and a new host record.

*ORNITHODOROS ANNULATUS

GRIMALDI (1934). Libya (page 508). print for Boophilus annulatus.

Nomen nudum, probably mis

*ORNTT HODOROS CAPENSIS

SPEISER (1909). Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean. Record of two specimens.

*ORNITHODOROS FOLEYI

GRIMALDI (1934). Libya. As 0. franchinii, collecting localities.

*ORNITHODOROS LAHORENSIS

FRANCHINI (1927%). Libya. Erroneous report, refers to 0. foleyi. GRIMALDI (1934). Libya. Repetition of Franchini.

ORNITHODOROS MOUBATA

MASSEY (1908). Angola. Tick common in Benguela District.

JACK (1910). Control and general remarks, apparently not based on personal observation.

SCHOUTEDEN (1929). Belgian Congo. Abundant in Kivu.

GRIMALDI (1934). Libya. Erroneous report.
Erroneous report. Eritrea, Ethiopia,

and Somalia, collecting localities.

CHERRY (1955). Uganda. Summary: Uganda. Summary: "A campaign using a water miscible preparation of BHC and simple equipment against 0. moubata in heavily infested areas is described and Its effects on the incidence of relapsing fever assessed. The cost is low and its success favors the acceptance of other public health measures by primitive communities". Other observations on therapeutics of the disease in human beings.

*This species is not known from the Sudan (cf. pages 114 and 115).

WALTON (1955). Kenya and neighboring areas of Tanganyika. A val uable account of conditions under which 0. moubata exists in Digo (Kwale) District and epidemiology of relapsing fever, this report of an unique area should point the way for further comparative research under a variety of conditions. Although settled tribes engage in fishing and a small amount of animal husbandry, farming, and home industries, there is quite a little movement of peoples. On the sandy coastal plain, vegetation varies from short grasslands with forest patches to grasslands with open bush and termite mound dominated islands of vegetation giving way to scant thorn bush in the interior. Rain falls each month (50 to 60 inches annual at coast, 30 to 40 inches in hinterland). Mean air temperature is 80°F., RH at 0830 about 79%, falling to 70% at 1430.

In

Domestic fowls are an important source of blood meals for 0. moubata in huts (cf. pages 128,129,147,148,150,181), 113 of 124 samples being positive for fowl blood by the precipitin test. another sample of 25 ticks from Tiwi, all had fed on fowls alone (the question of chickens preying on ticks is not considered). Ticks were not found on the fowls or in their nests, but usually in dusty cracks, holes, or depressions in the floor near chickens' roosting places. Scarcity of chickens and absence of ticks in damp houses is (inconclusively) correlated.

Other blood meals among the 124 samples mentioned above were eight for man only, two for man and fowl, and one for sheep or goat (from this it would appear either that fowls are more accessible and therefore more frequently utilized as hosts or else that the author was possibly dealing with a fowl blood adapted strain – HH). It could not be demonstrated that the presence of sheep and goats in dry or in humid areas acted as a deterrent to ticks (cf. pages 127,128,147), also, it does not appear from this study that sheep and goats are frequently parasitized.

Bedsteads are a definite deterrent to tick infestation (cf. pages 147 and 180) because ticks have difficulty in climbing smooth legs, bedlegs do not break the floor, and sweeping and repairing floors is easier. More primitive beds are easily reached and provide shelter for ticks. Broken floors are favorable to the tick (cf. pages 146 and 180).

Human urination in huts, as a single factor, cannot be correlated with tick infestation. Coastal strip recent sediments

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