Seasonal distribution of some arthropod parasites of rabbits in Louisiana.

Studies were conducted to determine the species and seasonal distribution of bots, ticks and fleas on wild rabbits in 2 areas of Louisiana. Cuterebra horripilum Clark was the only bot found parasitizing rabbits in the 2 areas. There were 2 generations of rabbit bots in northeastern Louisiana in 1966 and 3 generations in southwestern Louisiana in 1966 and 1967. Infestations never exceeded 37% in either area. The rabbit tick, Haemaphysalis leporispalustris (Packard), was the only species of tick found infesting rabbits in the marsh areas of southwestern Louisiana. There were 2 generations per year of this tick and the average number of ticks per rabbit ranged from 1.2 in February to 215.9 in June. No fleas were found on rabbits in this area. In northeastern Louisiana, 3 species of ticks and 1 species of flea were found on rabbits from September through November 1966. The rabbit tick was abundant while the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (Linnaeus), and the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say), were found in small numbers. Ticks infested rabbits at the rate of 182.4 ticks per rabbit and the common eastern rabbit flea, Cediopsylla simplex Baker, infested rabbits at the rate of 1.83 fleas per rabbit.