- 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.