The Structure and Biology of Haemaphysalis punctata, Canestrini and Fanzago. I

Abstract

The importance of various species of ticks in relation to the propagation of protozoal diseases, is so generally recognised that it has appeared to us eminently desirable to make a detailed study of one of the common species. Such a study has seemed to us specially necessary for the reason that our knowledge of these parasites is very imperfect, in spite of the fact that they possess an economic interest of the first order. Some of the diseases which ticks transmit, notably those due to the haematozoal parasites belonging to the genus Piroplasma, are among the most devastating affections of domesticated animals in many parts of the world, the useful animals which suffer from piroplas-mosis being cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and dogs. The disease known as “Heart-water,” occurring in South Africa and affecting sheep, goats and cattle, is likewise tick-transmitted. A disease of the domesticated fowl, analogous to relapsing fever in man, likewise of economic importance and occurring in different parts of the world, has also been demonstrated to be transmitted from animal to animal through the agency of ticks. The fowl disease is due to a Spirochaeta which is conveyed by ticks; the same holds for human “tick fever” and a spirochaete infection in cattle occurring in parts of Africa. Recent investigation appears to have clearly established the fact that a tick conveys spotted or Rocky Mountain Fever to man. Moreover it has been claimed that a Nematode worm, the Filaria perstans, parasitic in man, undergoes its development in a tick which is capable of conveying the parasite from one human host to another. There can be no doubt but that ticks will be found, upon further investigation, to be associated in the transmission of an increasing number of diseases in animals.