Also tanpan. [? Sechuana name.] A South African species of acarus remarkable for the venom of its bite.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xix. 383. The anxiety my friends at Tete manifested to keep my men out of the reach of the tampans of the village, made it evident that they had seen cause to dread this insignificant insect.
1880. P. Gillmore, On Duty, 295. Bitten all over by ‘tampans,’ an insect synonymous to the ‘jigger’ of the West Indies.
1883. J. Mackenzie, Day-dawn in Dark Places, 157. The mother was annoyed in her house by ‘tanpans,’ insects whose bite is more distressing than that of mosquitoes.
