Creepy Crawlies

We have this online website where one can take "practice exams." It's a great website that serves as good review of the material learned, except when you look at the questions and don't even know what they're asking. I just got my butt kicked on the "creatures of dermatologic significance" section, which includes all the creepy-crawly things that can cause skin problems. Like pubic lice, spiders, caterpillars, fleas, snakes, ticks, etc.

Sometimes they show you a picture and want the genus and species. Ticks are a favorite:

Lone star tick AKA Amblyomma Americanum, which transmits Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever via Rickettsia rickettsii, Human monocytic erlichiosis by E. chafeensis, and Tularemia via Francisella tularesis.

Dermacentor variabilis, AKA dog tick, which carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Human monocytic erlichiosis by E. chafeensis, and Tularemia

Ixodes scapularis, aka deer tick of the east (aka Ixodes dammini but not to be confused with Ixodes pacificus of the west), which transmits Lyme disease via Borrelia burgdorferi, human granulocytic anaplasmosis via E equi and E phagocytophila.

These pictures are easy to tell apart, but let me just say that ticks do not pose the same way for test pictures, and sometimes you just can't tell what kind of tick they are...

Back to studying...

photo credits - all pictures from google pictures. Will post links later...