https://entomologytoday.org/2017/06/07/first-report-of-dwarf-deer-tick-comes-as-overall-population-soars/ June 7, 2017 by
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station has identified a dwarf deer tick, which is identical to a typical adult female deer tick but is half the size.
Oh goody, if ticks weren’t hard enough to see, now they can be harder to find.
A typical deer tick is 3 millimeters, whereas the dwarf deer tick is just 1.5 millimeters, with the nymph tinier yet.
The finding, reported in the Journal of Medical Entomology, https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/3859660/The-First-Evidence-of-Nanism-in-Ixodes-Ixodes states that additional studies of teratology (abnormal development) in ticks and the implications in disease transmission are needed.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 