[This pest more often feeds on the blood of man than is imagined. Blanchard states that he has received them from men’s clothes in Strasburg. Boschulte, of Westphalia, records these parasites in a bedroom inhabited by children and connected with a pigeon-house. The children were bitten during sleep on the hands and feet. The result of the bite was intense itching along the nerves, the bite only being marked by a red spot. In a girl of 14 or 15, vesicles were formed similar to those produced by burns, and in an old man an ulcer formed. Others record painful punctures and persistent œdema produced by this pigeon pest. It was once abundant in Canterbury Cathedral, and often caused much annoyance, I am told, to the worshippers; the ticks falling down from the roof, where they were living, derived from the numerous pigeons that breed in the towers. This Acarus has enormous powers of vitality, living without food for months at a time.—F. V. T.]
Argas persicus, Fischer de Waldheim, 1824.
Of oval form and brownish-red colour. The male measures 4 to 5 mm. in length by 3 mm. in breadth; the female 7 to 10 mm. in length by 5 to 6 mm. in breadth. It frequents the entire north-west and north-east of Persia (the gerib-gez or malleh of the Persians, the miana bug of travellers). It lives concealed in houses and attacks man at night to suck his blood. Its bite is much dreaded, but the serious results may probably be attributed to unsuitable treatment of the wound or its invasion by bacteria.
Fig. 362.—Argas persicus: ventral aspect. 7/1. (After Mégnin.)
[This tick, sometimes called the tampan and wandlius in South Africa, is mainly a fowl parasite. Fowls and ducks frequently die under its attack, particularly young ones, death being due to loss of blood. This tick remains attached to its host during its larval stage for about five days; it then leaves and moults in concealment. In its subsequent stages it visits its host by night and remains for about an hour only, during which time it distends itself fully with blood. As a nymph it moults twice, not once as do the cattle ticks. This tick and other Argas become larger with each moult, but retain their same general appearance. The female visits the host every now and then, and, between, deposits eggs in sheltered crevices. About fifty to 120 are deposited at once. Four weeks seems a necessary period to intervene between visits to the host, and the interval may be extended to upwards of a year according to Lounsbury.[346]
[It is found in the Sudan, where Balfour has found granules derived from the segmentation of spirilla in their digestive tract. Fantham and Hindl have confirmed this. It has been assumed that these granules carry infection.
[This so-called Persian tick, the miana, which is such a scourge to travellers in Persia, appears to infest the huts of natives in that country. It has been sent me from Quetta, where it has invaded houses to such an extent the natives cannot live in them. The virulence of its bite is probably due to the tick transmitting fever germs from natives, probably inured, to strangers, who would be susceptible.—F. V. T.]
Argas brumpti, Neumann.