I discovered this tick on the back of my head, before a bite (or so I think), after going to the field looking for bugs. Most likely location where the tick caught a ride on my backpack: Coordinates 31.337273, -110.962122

After sharing these images with several epidemiologists in the Arizona Department of Health Services and the CDC in Georgia, I was told that this species is no longer recognized as A. triste. Hayley D. Belisle-Yaglom, Senior Vector-borne & Zoonotic Disease Epidemiologist with the Arizona Department of Health Services said: “This is a male Amblyomma maculatum. Please note that we are no longer calling these triste. You may refer to Allerdice et al. (2017)".

A professor at Georgia Southern University commented: "After looking at these images, I would call this Amblyomma maculatum and not A. triste. All molecular work indicate that this tick does not differ genetically from A. maculatum from Georgia."

A respected tick expert told me: "The Arizona ticks belong to the “Amblyomma maculatum” group, which includes A. maculatum, A. triste, and A. tigrinum. The taxonomic status of species of the Amblyomma maculatum group is under scrutiny. The occurrence of A. triste in Arizona has been reported, but not confirmed yet. Minor morphological differences between the Arizona tick and both, A. maculatum and A. triste, have been recorded and are presently being reassessed by molecular analysis".