A Contribution to the Biology of Ornithodoros hermsi Wheeler, Herms and Meyer

Abstract

This species of tick is a parasite of small mammals, particularly rodents, with the most favored host the western chipmunks, Eutamtias spp. The majority of ticks in California were taken from the nesting material of these animals found in the attics and between the walls of some of the cabins and cottages in several of the mountain resort areas (Herms and Wheeler, 1935). Other specimens have been found in nesting material of chipmunks situated in old hollow logs while several were removed from the sleeping bag of a deer hunter. In Colorado many ticks of this species were collected from chipmunk nesting material in a decaying Douglas fir stump (Davis, 1941). No ticks have been discovered in the nests of the chickaree squirrel, Sciurus douglasii, although this species of rodent is another proven reservoir of the spirochetes of relapsing fever. That these squirrels locate their nests high in trees making search extremely difficult in all probability accounts for the fact that no ticks have been taken from the nests of these animals.