Penetration of Ixodes beneath the Skin

Abstract

In Ticks (Part ii. p. 314) various cases are cited by me in which Ixodes in the larval, nymphal and adult stages have been found lodged beneath the skin of the host: Dubreuilh (1838), Van Beneden (1883) and Blanchard (1891) record cases in man where ticks were found either in a pustule or in cysts beneath the skin. In Blanchard's case a living I. ricinus (♀), 8 mm. in length, was excised from the patient, in whom it caused a subcutaneous tumour about the size of a nut which had appeared some weeks before. Mégnin (1867 and 1892) found (?) ricinus nymphs beneath the scabs covering pustules on the legs of a horse at Versailles. Kossel, Schütz, Weber and Miessner (1903) state that ricinus nymphs and larvae occasionally bore themselves beneath the skin of cattle.