Ticks include 2 families: Ixidae and Soft ticks. Ixodes are of most veterinary importance.
A variety of Ixodes ticks can carry viral, bacterial, animal protozoa and human pathogens. In addition, Ixodes can cause tick paralysis and tick poisoning.
1 Flower tick
(1) Host: various domestic animals and wild animals.
(2) Parasitic parts: multiple parts, often parasitic on the head and neck of livestock.
(3) Life history: The flower tick is a three-host tick, that is, in each period of the life cycle, it must find a new host after molting in the outside world.
Larval ticks and nymphs have a wide host range, and adults often parasitize ruminants and other livestock, including humans.
Female and male ticks of the American flower tick (Lone star tick). This American common female tick is easily identified by its large white spot on the trailing edge of the scutellum.
Although the male tick does not have obvious splendor when observed at close range, some colored stripes and edge stacks can be seen on the edge of its shield
Nymph of the American flower tick. Like adults, nymphs have eight legs, but are smaller and have no genital pores. Unlike the female tick, the nymph of the American flower tick does not have a prominent “lone star” rosy.
Spotted tick: The Gulf tick is found in the southeastern United States, Mexico, and southern and central America. Mainly parasitic on the heads and necks of birds and mammals. Note the typical long mouthparts.
The flower tick is a common tick in tropical and subtropical regions. Like flower ticks from Africa, they are often festooned with colored stripes. Some genera of ticks, such as the flower tick, also have a pair of monocular eyes on the edge of the scutellum
2 glass-eyed ticks
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(1) Host: There are many kinds of hosts, including livestock. The Egyptian glass eye tick is a host tick, parasitic on the tortoise.
(2) Parasitic sites: multiple sites.
(3) Life history: The glass-eyed tick is usually a secondary host tick, and the blood-saturated tick and the blood-saturated adult tick leave the host.
The glass eye ticks are important disease vectors in Africa, Asia and Australia, but they are not distributed in the Western Hemisphere.
They have long mouthparts, with eyes and rims like the flower tick, but not as colorful
3 Ixodes
(1) Host: There are many kinds of hosts, including domestic animals and humans.
(2) Parasitic sites: multiple sites.
(3) Life history: three host ticks. The most important identifying feature of Ixodes is the anal sulcus that originates at the back edge of the body and surrounds the anus. This feature can be viewed with the aid of a magnifying glass or dissecting microscope.
The main vector of Lyme disease in the United States
The scutellum of Ixodes scapularis is not colorful
The most obvious morphological feature of Ixodes is the anus. The groove surrounds the anus. Ticks of other genera either have no anal groove or surround the anus. Ixodes species also have long mouthparts
4 ticks
(1) Host: Ticks of this genus are the most important parasites of domestic animals and dogs.
(2) Parasitic sites: multiple sites.
(3) Life history: R. sanguinis is a three-host tick, and it uses dogs as hosts in each period of its life history.
R. pipiens is also a three-host tick, while R. elbecki is a two-host tick, and R. microcephalus, R. ringed and R. leucocephalus are one host tick.
The eggs in the external environment hatch into larvae and then attach to the host. After going through the stages of nymph and adult tick, the female tick leaves the host after full blood and lays eggs in the external environment.
The full-blooded female tick of R. sanguinis (The brown dog tick). This kind has no splendor. The tick is most common in the southern United States, but R. sanguinaria is also found in kennels in other regions, as R. sanguineus has been host to dogs at all times.
R. sanguineus (brown dog tick). The tick pseudocephalic base of the genus Ricks is hexagonal and protrudes outward.
This is a host tick parasitic on cattle and is the vector of bovine babesiosis
5 Blood tick
(1) Host: It varies from species to species, and can be parasitized in many mammals and birds.
(2) Parasitic sites: multiple sites.
(3) Life history: ticks with three hosts left the host after full blood in each period. Juveniles and nymphs are mainly parasitic on small mammals and birds, and adult ticks are parasitic on large mammals.
The Hare Hare tick distributed in South America can carry the bacterial pathogen of tularemia – Francisella tularemia.
Other members of the genus Haemophilus, distributed in Africa, Asia and Australia, are vectors of Babesia and Theileria.
The pedipalps of the blood tick are wider than they are long, and the 2nd segment of the pedipalps of some species extends beyond the outer edge
6 Sharp tick
(1) Host: poultry and wild birds.
(2) Parasitic sites: multiple sites.
(3) Life history: Sharp edged tick is a soft tick that lives in the external environment,
infects birds only when feeding and mostly occurs at night. Young and adult ticks require multiple blood feedings.
A species of sharp edged tick, a soft tick. The surface of the sharp tick has many particles.
Ornithocarpus is covered with carbuncles (small bumps) and has no visible edges
