THE ANIMAL FILES

Castor bean tick

Ixodes ricinus

A tiny animal's journey crosses several hosts.

The castor bean tick links successive blood meals with periods off the host. Humid vegetation and soil-level refuges matter between meals, and nymphs wait on plants for passing animals. Its shield also covers different amounts of the body in different sexes and stages.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Castor bean tick
Image: W.alter · Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
A three-host cycle
Larvae and nymphs feed, detach and moult.[1]
Waiting on vegetation
Nymphs quest on grasses and twigs.[1]
A shield with room to expand
Females have a partial dorsal shield.[1]

A three-host cycle

The lifecycle uses successive hosts rather than remaining on one animal throughout development. Larvae feed and drop away before moulting into nymphs; nymphs then obtain another meal. Off-host intervals are part of development, not interruptions outside the lifecycle.[1]

Waiting on vegetation

Nymphs cling to vegetation as animals pass. When they lose too much moisture, they return to the humid soil-level microclimate. Temperature and humidity influence seasonal activity, linking host finding to conditions around the waiting site.[1]

A shield with room to expand

The hard shield covers the male's dorsal body more extensively than in females or nymphs. Females enlarge markedly after feeding. The visible body is therefore not a fixed-sized shell, and a fed individual looks very different from an unfed one.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Is this an insect with six adult legs?

No. NCBI places ticks among arachnids; their lineage is separate from insects.[2]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why would a humid patch near the ground matter before a meal?

Reveal the explanation

Questing ticks can lose moisture and return there to reduce dehydration between attempts to find a host.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Castor bean tick (cited revision)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Ixodes ricinus

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

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