Although the rain was lacking, today was designated as the day with the greatest probability of rain. Ticks don't particularly like rain, so as we can we avoid rainy fieldwork days. Therefore today was a lab day.
After staring at ticks for a few hours you begin to question your work. Even though we know what each species looks like in a perfect world, the world doesn't agree to be perfect...ever. So! You have to keep your eyes focused and looking for the indicators of each species we know to be true.
For example: Lone Star males (shown below) are a brown/orange color, fairly small, and have white festoons.
Wait...what does fairly small mean?
Exactly. This is why asking questions in the lab for new interns like me is vital. Here the two ticks above are both lone star males. Beyond the obvious size difference, they are the same species and life stage. We always manage to find anomalies in the lab. Fancy tools like a camera microscope come in quite handy so we can show the other individuals in the lab for their opinion and so multiple people can review the same information.
I also finalized the SOP for the lab today. A stand operating procedure helps everyone stay on the same page to keep the lab and the data precise and accurate.
Moral of the story...ticks can be wicked confusing. But this helps remind us that further studies are definitely needed to progress our knowledge about ticks and emphasizes the need to never stop questioning.
-Lexi
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