Answer to Case 590

Answer to Parasite Case of the Week 590:Ixodes scapularislarvae, freshly hatched from an egg mass laid by a captive female. This fascinating video was generously donated by Dr. Graham Hickling who does research on hard tick biology.While there isn ' t enough information present to specifically identify these ticks, you can say a few things about them from the video:The have only 6 legs, and are therefore larvae.In North America, the long mouth parts and ovoid body would be most consistent withIxodesspecies. As astutely noted by Old One, " Six legs, newly hatched, long club shaped palps, apparently no visible festoons and no visible inverted U anal plate. Definitely newly hatched seed ticks (I would like to suggest a name change to TICK-ETTE) as in pick up your tickettes here. You might need to FLAG them down. "We ' ve actually seen these little wonders before in a different blog post:HERE is momma tick laying her eggs, with a video showing the actionHERE. I HIGHLY recommend this video - it is fascinating! You may want to check out the other great videos on this site: https://vimeo.com/user1369895. Thanks again to Graham for sharing his ' babies ' and passion for acarology with the rest of the world.WhileI. scapularistick larvae won ' t usually hatch until this summer, the nymphs that have over-wintered from last year are now out, so be sure to take precautions against tick bites when outdoors!
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs