Rhipicephalus pravus Dönitz, 1910

Abstract

The adults of Rhipicephalus pravus were first described very briefly by Dönitz, in 1910, from specimens collected from buffalo, giraffe and various antelopes on the Masai Steppe in Tanganyika. He did not designate any specific specimens as types. He compared the species with R. oculatus, but stated that the difference in the structure of the eyes of the two forms, which he described in detail, was so marked that he considered it to be specific. He also commented on the fact that the males of R. pravus are often strikingly narrow anteriorly, but added that this is not a decisive character. Zumpt (1942) redescribed the adults in detail from material collected in the Tanganyika highlands (Arusha, Kilimatinde, Kondoa-Irangi, Mkalama, Morogoro and Mpwapwa), in Kenya (Mt. Nyro and Mt. Loroghi) and in Abyssinia (Diredawa). Theiler & Robinson (1953) gave descriptions of adults collected at Fairmount, Edenburg, Orange Free State and of nymphae and larvae bred from them in the laboratory. They also discussed the biology, distribution and synonymy of the species. The following descriptions of the adults, nymph and larva are based on laboratory-bred specimens, the progeny of a female collected at Kima, approximately 90 miles south-east of Nairobi.