A dwarf tick I recently described1 has made me famous… on the blog of Entomology Today, anyway. The state Tick Testing Program at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station recently received an abnormally small tick, pictured above. After a bit of basic molecular work, along with the aforementioned microscopy that highlighted morphology consistent with an adult female despite a small size, I identified the tick as Ixodes scapularis. This is the smallest adult deer tick found in Connecticut and probably the country. The tick was not originally gold, but was sputter-coated for electron microscopy.

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  1. Soghigian et al. 2017. The First Evidence of Nanism in Ixodes (Ixodes) scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae), Found Parasitizing a Human Host. Journal of Medical Entomology. Published online ahead of print.