146 DEER AND DOG TICKS, 
IXODIDA..—Ticks. 
Deer and Dog Ticks. Jaodes ricinus, Linn. 
1, Ixoprs ricinus (Deer and Dog Tick), female; 2, I. prtnackus (Hedgehog and 
Dog Tick), female—nat. size and mag.; 3, Claw of Ixoprs, mag. 
“Ticks” are perfectly well known (especially to sportsmen and to 
those who have much to do with dogs) in their feeding conditions, 
when swelled up, by the blood they have sucked from whatever animal 
they may be infesting, into a smooth, shining, somewhat ball- or bean- 
like shape, attached to their host so firmly by the mouth-apparatus 
that, if pulled off without great care in detaching, they almost certainly 
either leave their proboscis behind, thereby causing a small festering 
sore for each Tick removed, or tear away a little piece of the surface- 
skin, which also causes a sore spot temporarily. 
In this shape they are well known; but when non-inflated, and 
amongst grass, or in other places detached from animal presence, they 
are often not recognized as being the well-known pest, only in another 
condition or stage of life; and thus the origin of the infestation, or the 
kind of locality in which the Tick attaches itself to suitable animal 
hosts, is often not connected by observers with subsequent presence of 
the somewhat injurious and very repulsive-looking pest. 
‘‘Ticks’’ are not insects; they belong scientifically to the great 
division of Acarina, or Mites, and are distinguishable from insects by 
having eight legs, excepting in their earliest condition, when they have 
only six. 
They are propagated by eggs. Out of these eggs the larva hatches 
with six legs, and in this condition, it is stated, may be found on the 
fur of various wild animals, but apparently without a necessity for 
feeding. After a while they drop to the ground, and, it is considered, 
probably go through their transformations in the ground to the pupal 
state. In this they become possessed of eight legs, and now they live 
on their host-animals, ‘‘with the rostrum implanted in the skin of 
their host, penetrating sometimes beneath it, and causing the formation 
of purulent tumours.” 
