The Mechanism of Feeding in Ticks

Abstract

The mechanism of feeding in ticks has been fully described in numerous text-books. Briefly, it is believed to be as follows: After the tick has fixed itself on the host's body by means of the denticles on the ventral surface of the hypostome, the chelicerae, or the so-called mandibles, are brought into action, and the “protrusion and retraction of the shaft, together with the extension of the teeth on the digits, results in a saw-like movement which tears a hole in the skin” (Patton and Cragg, 1913). More recently, Sharif (1928) has suggested the possibility that the actual incisions in the skin of the host are, as a rule, made by the cheliceral digits and that through the incisions thus made, the proboscis (i.e. the chelicerae and the hypostome collectively) is pushed into the deeper tissues.