210 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



moult another pair appears. The sucking beak, which is 

 thrust into the host when the tick is feeding, is furnished with 

 many strong, recurved teeth which hold so firmly that the 

 head is often torn from the body and left in the skin of the host 

 when the tick is forcibly removed. 



Ticks are wholly parasitic in their habits. Some of them 

 live on their host practically all their lives, only dropping 

 to the ground when fully mature to deposit their eggs. Others 



FIG. 96. Castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus, not fully gorged. (Magnified 

 about five times.) 



leave their host twice to molt in or on the ground. The 

 female lays her eggs, 1000 to 10,000 of them, on or beneath 

 leaves and other litter on the ground. The young "seed- 

 ticks" that hatch from these in a few days, soon crawl up on 

 some nearby blades of grass or on a bush or shrub and 

 wait quietly and patiently until some animal comes along. 

 If the animal comes close enough the ticks leave the 

 grass or other support and cling to their new found 

 host and are soon taking their first meal. Of course 

 thousands of them are disappointed and starve before their 



