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their effects in limiting the increase of population of ticks will yield fruitful
results. Regarding the effects of predaceous animals on ticks no organised
and systematic attempt has ever been made except here and there one comes
across names of a few birds which partially feed on ticks. As regards the
parasitic enemies a serious attempt by highly trained persons is being made
at present at Montana where a research laboratory costing about sixty thou-
sand dollars was specially built for this purpose in 1927 [Cooley, 1929, 3].
To quote Cooley [1932 ] " At the present time the use of tick parasites seems
to offer the most promising method ". So far the parasites of ticks that we
know of, all have been discovered by chance in connection with other work.
Special efforts should be directed at finding the enemies of ticks.
De Jesus [1934 ] found experimentally that gordura grass (Melinis minuti¬
flora) has a distinctly repellent effect on the larvae of B. australis. They die
in forty to sixty days on the blades and. fifteen to thirty days on the leaf
sheaths. He believes in the possibility of producing a tick-free pasture by
planting gordura grass and allowing ninety days to elapse after grazing of
infected cattle.
The predaceous enemies of ticks.—The most efficient predaceous enemies
of ticks are found among the birds. According to Newstead [1909], Trinkling
Grackle Quiscalus crassirostris and Parott-billed black bird Crotophyla ani
Linnaeus eat ticks specially B. australis in Jamaica. Six examples of the
former bird were found to contain 159 ticks in their alimentary canal.
Bequaert [ 1930 ] gives a short review of the tick-eating birds in various count-
ries. Moreau [ 1933 ] found 2,291 ticks in the stomach of the red-billed ox-
pecker or tick-bird Buphagus erythrorhynchus in East Africa. According to
De Jesus [ 1936 ], the Cattle Egret Bulbulcus coromandus feeds on B. australis
on the bodies of cattle in the Philippines. Shpringgol'tz-Shmidt [ 1935 ]
found, in the Russian Far East, magpie, Pica pica destroying a number of
ticks on the deer. The domestic fowls feed eagerly on ticks. If kept in
the pens swept and clean, they will pick up any ticks which fall from the
cattle and the pens in this way can be kept free from ticks.
According to Hooker, Bishopp and Wood [1912], rats and mice feed upon
ticks and ' assist in a limited way in destroying the engorged females '.
Toads and lizards also feed on ticks. Sautet [ 1936 ] records the feeding
of R. sanguineus by the spider Teutana triangulosa in Corsica. Dutton and
Todd [ 1905 ] found that the eggs and young ones of Ornithodoros moubata
(Murray) were usually carried away by ants and on ' one occasion over two
hundred young ticks were carried off in a single night by small ants'. Vollmer
[ 1931 ] found that the cloth moth Tineola biselliella Humm. feeds on living
O. moubata and Argas persicus.
Parasitic enemies of ticks.—Among the parasitic enemies of the ticks there
were originally three species of the Chalcidoid family Encyrtidae [ Cooley,
1929, 2 ], viz., Ixodiphagus texanus Howard, I. caucurtei du Buysson and
Huntrellus hookeri Howard, but according to Gahan [1934] the second species
is the synonym of the third. H. hookeri has a very wide distribution and it