tick - any of two families of small parasitic arachnids with barbed proboscis; feed on blood of warm-blooded animals

family Ixodidae, Ixodidae - hard ticks

deer tick, Ixodes dammini - a northeastern tick now recognized as same species as Ixodes scapularis

Ixodes neotomae - a tick that usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to dusky-footed wood rats

Ixodes pacificus, western black-legged tick - feeds on dusky-footed wood rat and bites humans; principal vector for Lyme disease in western United States especially northern California

black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis - parasitic on mice of genus Peromyscus and bites humans; principal vector for Lyme disease in eastern United States (especially New England); northern form was for a time known as Ixodes dammini (deer tick)

Ixodes ricinus, sheep tick, sheep-tick - parasitic on sheep and cattle as well as humans; can transmit looping ill in sheep (acute viral disease of the nervous system); a vector for Lyme disease spirochete

Ixodes persulcatus - bites humans; a vector for Lyme disease spirochete

Ixodes dentatus - usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to cottontail rabbits and wood rats

Ixodes spinipalpis - usually does not bite humans; transmits Lyme disease spirochete to cottontail rabbits and wood rats

American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, wood tick - common tick that can transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia