![]() ![]() When questing, a tick will perch at the end of a piece of vegetation with front legs extended and simply latch on to a suitable host as it passes by. They typically use a passive behavior known as questing to seek out their hosts. Ticks don’t jump or fly or drop from trees onto their hosts. Left to Right: Deer Tick Adult, Nymph, Larva An exception to this three-host life cycle is the winter tick which experiences a one-host life cycle, spending its entire life on a single host, primarily moose. The entire life cycle takes place over the course of one to three years depending on the species of tick. Once mated and fully engorged, the adult female tick will deposit a single batch of several thousand eggs into the leaf litter and die. The adult tick feeds upon a third and final host. The nymph will then locate and feed on its second host, release, and molt into an adult. Once fully engorged, the larval tick drops from its host and molts to a nymph. It is typically during the larval stage that the tick becomes infected with disease-causing organisms. Upon hatching from the egg, six-legged larvae (sometimes called seed ticks) seek out and begin feeding on their first host. Most of the tick species in Maine undergo a three-host life cycle in which they feed on a different individual host at each active life stage (larva, nymph, and adult). Mainers should be in the habit of performing tick checks after frequenting tick habitat. Since ticks are efficient feeders and tenacious once attached, there is potential for transmitting disease. During feeding, ticks secrete substances that help anchor it to the host, act as an anesthetic to mask the pain from the bite, and prevent blood from coagulating. The tick’s mouthparts are located on the capitulum and are made up of the chelicerae and hypostome, which are used to penetrate and secure the tick to its host. On males, the scutum covers the entire dorsal surface and limits their feeding ability. On females, this scutum takes up approximately 1/3 of the dorsal surface and can be useful in differentiating tick species. Hard ticks, like the ones found in Maine, have a hardened plate on the dorsal surface called a scutum. Like spiders and other arachnids, adult ticks and nymphs have eight legs, though larvae emerge from the egg with only six. The tick’s form consists of a capitulum (head) and a flattened, oval-shaped body called the idiosoma. No species of soft ticks have been found in Maine. Hard ticks are distinguished from soft ticks (family Argasidae) by the presence of a scutum and a prominent capitulum (head). The 15 different tick species that have been found in Maine are members of the family Ixodidae, which encompasses all of the hard ticks. There are roughly 900 tick species found worldwide and approximately 90 species located in the United States. Ticks are often mistaken for insects, but they are actually small arachnids (like spiders and scorpions) that, along with mites, constitute the subclass Acari. ![]()
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