TraceyRunciman

The Bernhard Nocht Institue analysed this one - very advanced female (about to release the nymphs) - not infected :-)

Thanks Dan; looks good, since there are deer in the woods here. I wonder whether she is ready to release a few thousand little ticks.

Thanks Selma. I'm afraid that I do not have the facilities to perform such detailed analysis, but it is interesting to know that such techniques can determine so much.

Would a chemical analsysis be required to determine the gender?

Hi Selma,

Thanks. I'm sure that it is something like that. Perhaps the animal stands upright, rather like a meerkat, to look out for food or danger.

Thanks Selma

This is fascinating - follow the many links at http://my.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter/ice/ to discover more

Current theories suggest that this phenomenon occurs only on wet dead beech and oak wood, and then only on branches which have been 'infected' by certain species of fungus and also under specific atmospheric conditions (not too cold, not too humid, not too windy etc.) - a Goldilocks phenomenon. Alfred Wegener, in his work as a meteorologist, published a paper on it.

Underside photo shows plain white flat surface

Thanks António. That looks good.