J. Bequaert.
Amblyomma dissimile Koch, a Tick Indigenous to the United States (Acarina: Ixodidae).
Psyche 39(1-2):45-47, 1932.

This article at Hindawi Publishing: https://doi.org/10.1155/1932/73623
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Amblyomma dissimile
AMBLYOMMA DISSIMILE KOCH, A TICK
INDIGENOUS TO THE UNITED STATES
(ACARINA : IXODIDAE)
BY J. BEQUAERT
Department of Tropical Medicine, Harvard Medical School A few months ago, Mr. H. L. Stecher, of Staten Island, presented me, through Mr. W. T. Davis, with a female tick which he had taken at Boca Ratone, Palm Beach Co., Florida. It was found on a pigmy or ground rattler, Sis- trurus miliaris (Linne), and was attached to the left side behind the head. It was at once clear that it did not be- long to any of the species known thus far from this coun- try. Further study has shown that it is Amblyomma dis- simile C. L. Koch, a common parasite of many different reptiles and amphibians throughout Central and South ' America.
As far as I have been able to find, this is the first authen- tic instance of A. dissimile being found indigenous, on a wild host, within the borders of the United States. It is true that W. A. Hooker, F. C. Bishopp and H. P. Wood (1912, U. S. Dept. Agric., Bur. Entom., Bull. 106, p. 131) saw nymphs and adults collected from iguanas at Browns- ville, Texas; but they plainly state that these iguanas had been brought from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, so that this occurrence of the tick in Texas was merely accidental. Moreover, there seems to be no reason why A. dissimile should not be found in the wild state in south- ern Texas.
The Florida tick agrees in every respect with the many examples I have studied from Mexico and farther south. I have seen several lots of A. dissimile from Mexico, Gua- temala, British Honduras, the Republic of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Pachc 39d5.47 (1932). hup Wpsycht einclub org/19/39-@lS html



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46 Psyche [March
Trinidad, Grenada, Tobago, British Guiana, Peru, and Brazil. Neumann includes the Philippine Islands in the range, but I have difficulty in believing that this is cor- rect. This tick attacks many different cold-blooded verte- brates, showing no decided host preference, although being found perhaps most commonly on the large toad, Bufo marinus Linn6 (often erroneously referred to in the West Indies as the "bullfrog7?).
At the snake farm of Lance-
tilla, near Tela, Rep. of Honduras, I found the snake pen literally infested with A. dissimile at all stages of develop- ment. I was told that any snake placed in the pen would soon carry a few of the ticks.
The northernmost localities of A. dissimile known to me in Mexico are Perez (in the State of Vera Cruz), on the Atlantic side (many males and females off Bufo marinus, collected by S. E. Meek.-Field Mus. N. H.) ; and the Islets of Tres Marias (opposite the State of Tepic), on the Pacific side (several males and one nymph, off Constrictor constrictor imperator (Daudin), from Maria Madre 1sl.- M. C. Z.). Robinson (1926) records the species from Frontera in Tabasco.
I may use this opportunity to publish an interesting photograph which I owe to the courtesy of Dr. Thomas Barbour. It shows an Iguam rhinolopha Wiegmann bear- ing on the dewlap an engorged female and a male (to the right of the female) of A. dissimile. The host was brought alive from Ruatan Island, Rep. Honduras, to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., where it was photographed by Mr. G. Nelson.
POSTSCRIPT
Since my note was sent to the printer, I have found, at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, two females and two males of A. dissimile, taken by Mr. G. Nelson, in February, 1909, from a gopher snake, Spilotes corais couperi (Hol- brook), at Sebastian, Indian River Co., Florida. It would seem therefore that this tick is by no means rare in Florida, but has merely been overlooked.




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Fig. 1. Iguana- rhinolopha Wiegmann, of Ruataa Island, parad- tized by AwMyomm dissimile Koch.
Photograph of living animal
by Mr. G. Nelson.
(Courtesy of Dr. Thomas Barbour).




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