2006
Dr. Amanda Loftis, Dr. William Nicholson, Dr. Will Reeves

This photograph depicts a female “lone star tick” Amblyomma americanum. An Ixodes or “hard” tick, A. americanum is found through the southeast and south-central states, and has been shown to transmit the spirochete, Borrelia lonestari, the pathogen responsible for causing a Lyme disease-like rash known as “Southern tick-associated associated rash illness” (STARI). Representatives from all three of its life stages aggressively bite people in the southern U.S. Research indicates that live spirochetes are observed in only 1-3% of specimens.

The small chitinous scutum on the tick’s dorsal abdomen identified this as a female of the species. The reduced scutal size enables the abdomen to expand to enormous proportions when ingesting a blood meal the tick extracts from its host food source, as seen in PHIL# 8677. In the male, the scutum covers almost the entire dorsal abdomen. Also, note the four pairs of jointed legs, placing ticks in the Phylum Arthropoda, and the Class Arachnida.

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