Tick Life Cycle

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Ixodes ricinus mating - Wikimedia Commons
  • Ticks are temporary parasites so only spend a short period of their lives on the host species
  • When larvae are seeking a host they are known as seed ticks
  • Both hard and soft ticks have the same life cycle
    • Egg → larva → nymph → adult
  • Soft ticks feed little and often and on many hosts


Hard ticks

  • Classified depending on the number of host species they parasitise during their life cycle
  • Take one blood meal at each life cycle stage which lasts several days
  • One-host ticks
    • Each stage feeds and develops on one host (the same host)
    • E.g. Boophillus spp.
  • Two-host ticks
    • Larvae and nymphs feed on one host
    • Adults feed on a second host
    • E.g. Hyalomma
  • Three-host ticks
    • Each stage feeds and develops on a different host
    • E.g. Ixodes spp.