TMID513 lab exam Tick and mites
Student name: Tipawan Ammarit ID:6438166

Question 1: What is the respiratory organ of the suborder Astigmata? How do they breathe?
Answer: The suborder Astigmata or in common name is astigmatid mites, as suggested by the name, are characterized by a lack of stigmata. Because they are no stigmata thus they used integument to be respiratory organ that mean they breathe through the skin.

Question 2: What is the difference between hard ticks and soft ticks? How you differentiate between male and female of hard tick?
Answer: Hard ticks and soft ticks have different morphology characteristics including:
– Hard ticks have scutum (the hard plate) covered on their back but soft ticks are lack of scutum.
– Hard ticks have mouthparts (or capitulum) that are visible from above view but viewing soft ticks from above would give someone the impression that soft ticks do not have mouthparts. However, their mouthparts are located on the underside of the body so that the front portion of the soft tick’s body hides the mouthparts.
– Soft ticks have a wrinkled body but hard ticks don’t.

Moreover, we can differentiate the gender of hard ticks by used the morphology characteristics such as
– Male and female hard ticks have different coloration.
– Females are larger size than males hard tick.
– Female hard ticks have smaller size of scutum on their back (because females need to expanded the body size for contain blood and eggs) but male’s scutum are larger size (because no need to expand body size).
– From ventral side, females have anal groove near the anus but males have sclerotized plates aligned with anus.

Question 3: Please describe how you characterize the mites (at least two groups).
Answer: Mites can be characterized by habitats and harmful level to human including:
– House dust mites (such as Dermatophagoides farinae, D. pteronyssinus), are cause mind harmful level for human, due to their very small size and translucent bodies, are barely visible to the unaided eye. A typical house dust mite measures 0.2–0.3 mm in length. The body of the house dust mite has a striated cuticle. House dust mites eat skin cells shed by people, and they thrive in warm, humid environments. In most homes, such items as bedding, upholstered furniture and carpeting provide an ideal environment for dust mites. Mostly, house dust mite leads to allergy symptoms caused by inflammation of nasal passages include sneezing, running nose, cough, itchy nose, and nasal congestion.
– Chigger mites are parasitic hexapod larvae belonging mainly to the family Trombiculidea, Although the larvae are extremely small in size, their bites pack a powerful punch. They’re so tiny that you probably won’t notice when they jump from that tall blade of grass onto your skin. Which cause dermatitis (known as trombiculosis or trombiculiasis) in many animal species, including humans. Especially, cause high harmful level to human like rickettsial disease (scrub typhus) by Orientia tsutsugamushi.