hey all,
This is my first walk-around, and it's for the castor bean tick,
Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758) by 3B Scientific out of Germany.
This is an amazing figure and is VERY accurate, even down to the inverted U-shaped anal groove that defines genus (along with having long mouthparts, no eyes, and no festoons).
This is a European species. Members of the genus are vectors of
Borrelia burgorferi (Lyme disease),
Babesia spp. (babesiosis), and
Anaplasma phagocytophila (human anaplasmosis].
My new favorite figure





3B products are made in Germany but their distributor is here in Georgia [where I lived at the time of the original pst]. The US National Tick Collection is in Statesboro, GA (coincidence? LOL).