Family Ixodidae - Hard Ticks

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Remarks · Works Cited

American Dog Ticks (Dermacentor variabilis)? - Dermacentor variabilis - male - female

another Haemaphysalis? - Rhipicephalus sanguineus

Black-legged Tick - Ixodes scapularis - Ixodes scapularis - male

Very small biting insect - Amblyomma americanum

Rocky Mountain or Dog Tick - Dermacentor - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)

Class Arachnida (Arachnids)

Subclass Acari (Mites and Ticks)

Superorder Parasitiformes

Order Ixodida (Ticks)

Family Ixodidae (Hard Ticks)

Explanation of Names

Ixodidae Dugès 1834

Numbers

close to 700 spp. in 14 genera worldwide(1)

Identification

Identification is easier if there is both a dorsal and ventral photo (the latter is more important)

Key to eastern spp. in(2) (online version here: http://us-tick-key.klacto.net/index.html

Remarks

Ticks not known to transmit Lyme disease include Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum), the American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis), the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick (D. andersoni), and the Brown Dog Tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus). (CDC 2013)

Works Cited

1.	Superorder Parasitiformes Reuter, 1909. In: Zhang Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification... Beaulieu F., Dowling A.P.G., Klompen H., de Moraes G.J., Walter D.E. 2011. Zootaxa 3148: 123–128.

2.	Pictorial key to the adults of hard ticks, family Ixodidae (Ixodida: Ixodoidea), east of the Mississippi River Keirans J.E., Litwak T.R. 1989. J. Med. Entomol. 26: 435-448.

Contributed by Tony DiTerlizzi on 23 April, 2005 - 9:50am
Additional contributions by John VanDyk, McClarinJ, Chuck Entz, Mike Quinn, Vox Sciurorum, v belov, Nathaniel Green
Last updated 1 April, 2024 - 2:27pm

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