Question

Ticks are different from mites because they:

1. ____ have the hypostome toothed
2. ____ have Haller’s organ on the front tarsi
3. ____ have long hairs
4. ____ have very long palps
5. ____ have the body leathery in texture

Answer 1

Ticks and mites belong to the same class of organisms as spiders and scorpions. This group is called Arachnida. Mites and ticks exhibit developmental similarity. This similarity includes the presence of 6 legs in the larval stage and the addition of two legs in the adult stage. They also lack separation of the body into the head and trunk.

These two organisms, however, differ in many aspects. To begin with, the mites are small while the ticks are larger and hence can be seen with eyes. Both of them use mouthparts called hypostome to attach to the hosts. The hypostome in mites is tiny and hence they attach weakly to the host. Ticks have a barbed hypostome that allows them to attach strongly and this makes removing the ticks difficult from the host.

Both of the organisms lack hair and exhibit a leathery body. They differ in the sensory organs. The mites have palpal and tarsal organs which they use to detect their hosts based on the pressure variations. On the other hand, ticks have complex organs called Haller's organ which they use to detect the host using various sensory modalities like temperature, CO2, humidity and above-all olfaction. Thus Haller's organ truly distinguishes ticks from mite from the mentioned options.