Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Case of the Week 401

This week's case is in honor of Father's Day, which was just 2 days ago, as well as Mother's Day, which was in May.

The following were submitted to my laboratory for identification. The larger of the 2 arthropods was still alive. Identification?
Here are some close-up shots:





 Thanks to Emily Fernholz for taking these gorgeous photos!


5 comments:

Dan Milner said...

Such an adorable family! These soft ticks are not usually a problem in my neighborhood (New England) but can be quite a treacherous fiend in the western mountains of the US. Their cousin's, however, cause plenty of pain (including joint) in my neck of the tick-infested woods.

Sheldon Campbell said...

Mommy and Daddy Dermacentor; not soft ticks, due to the visible mouthparts from above, and the scutum -- filling the entire back of the male.

Lyric said...

Dermacentor variabilis! Hard ticks!

Anonymous said...

For sure an engorged female and male hard tick, they are quite prolific. At this I would go with previous identifications of Dermacentor, though a close up of the head parts would make the job a little easier.

Florida Fan

Jon said...

Definitely Mom and Dad Dermacentor. Without a good shot of the spiracular plates or collection location, I wouldn't want to hazard a species ID.