Ixodidae

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Ixodidae
Temporal range: Cretaceous–present
Ixodus ricinus 5x.jpg
Ixodes ricinus (engorged)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Ixodida
Superfamily: Ixodoidea
Family: Ixodidae
C. L. Koch, 1844

The Ixodidae are the family of hard ticks or scale ticks, [1] one of the three families of ticks, consisting of 771 species, as of 2024. [2] They are known as 'hard ticks' because they have a scutum or hard shield, which the other major family of ticks, the 'soft ticks' (Argasidae), lack. They are ectoparasites of a wide range of host species, and some are vectors of pathogens that can cause human disease.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Description

They are distinguished from the Argasidae by the presence of a scutum. [3] In both the nymph and the adult, a prominent gnathosoma (or capitulum, mouth and feeding parts) projects forward from the animal's body; in the Argasidae, conversely, the gnathosoma is concealed beneath the body.[ citation needed ]

They differ, too, in their lifecycle; Ixodidae that attach to a host bite painlessly and are generally unnoticed, and they remain in place until they engorge and are ready to change their skin; this process may take days or weeks. Some species drop off the host to moult in a safe place, whereas others remain on the same host and only drop off once they are ready to lay their eggs.[ citation needed ]

Classification

Ixodid wynaad.jpg

As of late 2009, there were considered to be 702 extant species in 14 genera, [4] according to Robbing et al. using the 2002 classification of Barker and Murrell.

The family contains these genera: [4] [ contradictory ]

Fossil genera

Medical importance

Many hard ticks are of considerable medical importance, acting as vectors of diseases caused by bacteria, protozoa, and viruses, such as Rickettsia and Borrelia . [3] Other tick-borne diseases include Lyme disease, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosis, Southern tick-associated rash illness, tick-borne relapsing fever, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, Powassan encephalitis, and Q fever. [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Ixodidae". NCBI taxonomy. Bethesda, Maryland: National Center for Biotechnology Information. Archived from the original on 14 May 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2017. Lineage( full ) cellular organisms; Eukaryota; Opisthokonta; Metazoa; Eumetazoa; Bilateria; Protostomia; Ecdysozoa; Panarthropoda; Arthropoda; Chelicerata; Arachnida; Acari; Parasitiformes; Ixodida; Ixodoidea
  2. ↑ Hoogstraal, Harry; Kaiser, Makram N.; Mitchell, Richard M. (1970). "Anomalohimalaya lama, New Genus and New Species (Ixodoidea: Ixodidae), a Tick Parasitizing Rodents, Shrews, and Hares in the Tibetan Highland of Nepal1" . Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 63 (6): 1576–1585. doi:10.1093/aesa/63.6.1576.
  3. 1 2 D. H. Molyneux (1993). "Vectors". In Francis E. G. Cox (ed.). Modern parasitology: a textbook of parasitology (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 53–74. ISBN   978-0-632-02585-5. Archived from the original on 2017-02-15. Retrieved 2016-11-06.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Alberto A. Guglielmone; Richard G. Robbing; Dmitry A. Apanaskevich; Trevor N. Petney; Agustín Estrada-Peña; Ivan G. Horak; Renfu Shao; Stephen C. Barker (2010). "The Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae (Acari: Ixodida) of the world: a list of valid species names" (PDF). Zootaxa . 2528: 1–28. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2528.1.1. hdl:11336/97869. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-07-24. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  5. ↑ "CDC - Tick-Borne Diseases - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic". www.cdc.gov. 2018-11-14. Archived from the original on 2019-07-01. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
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