Notes on Argas brumpti (Acarina)

Extract

Argas brumpti was first described by Neumann, in 1907 from specimens taken by Brumpt in Somaliland (Ogaden), and has since been found to occur also in British East Africa (Kitui) and the Sudan (Erkowit, Gebelein and Nuba Mountains). In the nymphal and adult stages it has a wide range of hosts, including man, but in the larval stage is far less catholic in its tastes. Cunliffe, in 1913, failed to induce the larvae to feed on a domestic fowl; King, in 1915, having similarly failed to rear them on domestic fowls, sparrows, pigeons, doves and bats, found that they would attach themselves readily to the loose skin on the head and neck of the guinea-fowl, Numida meleagris, and engorge. Larvae so fed were reared to maturity. It was believed that the guinea-fowl was possibly the usual host of A. brumpti in the larval stage, but the examination of numbers of guinea-fowl shot in districts in which this tick occurs yielded no confirmatory evidence.