any of two families of small parasitic arachnids with barbed proboscis; feed on blood of warm-blooded animals

hard ticks

a northeastern tick now recognized as same species as Ixodes scapularis

a tick that usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to dusky-footed wood rats

a tick that feeds on dusky-footed wood rat and bites humans; principal vector for Lyme disease in western United States especially northern California

parasitic on mice of genus Peromyscus and bites humans; principal vector for Lyme disease in eastern United States (especially New England); northern form was for a time known as Ixodes dammini (deer tick)

parasitic on sheep and cattle as well as humans; can transmit looping ill in sheep (acute viral disease of the nervous system); a vector for Lyme disease spirochete

hard ticks