Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Sheep tick

Ixodes ricinus

Description:

A familiar arachnid. Spider-like larvae are sometimes found crawling among vegetation or over clothing; attach themselves to mammals, including humans, and become bloated with blood.

Habitat:

Widespread in open country, found wherever sheep, goats or horses graze.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

2 Comments

Dangermouse
Dangermouse 11 years ago

I. scapularis seems to be confined to the USA, whereas the I. ricinus is found in Europe. The grey 'blobs' are ticks which have been feeding and are full of blood - this photo is of a starved tick, which jumped on me as I was walking through a field where goats normally graze.

shebebusynow
shebebusynow 11 years ago

This one looks more like Ixodes scapularis--the I. ricinus I'm seeing posted elsewhere here are big gray blobs named after a castor bean.

Dangermouse
Spotted by
Dangermouse

Algarve, Portugal

Spotted on Apr 16, 2012
Submitted on Apr 22, 2012

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Deer Tick Deer Tick Castor bean tick Sheep tick

Nearby Spottings

Yellow bee orchid Barbary nut White-legged damselfly Mirror bee-orchid

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team