![]() While their function is not known, the presence of festoons helps distinguish all other types of ticks from Ixodes ticks, which lack festoons. Common features used to determine species are festoons (patterns. To use a dichotomous key, one must be able to make accurate observations and follow directions carefully. A dichotomous key provides users with a series of statements with two choices that will eventually lead to the correct identification of the organism. Festoonsįestoons are small areas separated by short grooves located on the back margin of the tick. The body shape, color, and ornamentation are unique to species and used in identification. Dichotomous literally means dividing into two parts (Merriam-Webster, 2014). The shape and length of mouthparts can be a useful aid in tick identification but unfortunately, mouthparts often break off (because of the backward pointing barbs on the hypostome) and are left in the skin. The length of the mouthparts is one factor contributing to how hard or easy it is to remove different types of ticks. Some ticks (notably blacklegged ticks and lone star ticks) have longer, straight mouthparts, while others have shorter straight (American dog ticks, Rocky Mountain wood ticks, Pacific Coast ticks) or shorter triangular-shaped (brown dog ticks) palps. ![]() A pair of chelicerae (pronounced chel’icery) are located at the tip of the hypostome the chelicerae work like a reciprocating saw to cut a hole in the skin into which the tick sinks its hypostome lined with rows of backward pointing barbs, which help hold the tick tightly in the skin while it blood feeds. When a tick attaches to a host, the palps fold back, exposing the hypostome (a tick’s mouth). Tick paralysis in dogs and humans in Mississippi is mainly caused by one tick, Dermacentor variabilis, the American dog tick. The most distinctive components of the head are the palps and toothed hypostome, collectively called mouthparts. Ticks have 2 distinct body regions, the head (capitulum) and the body (idiosoma).
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