Ticks and mites

This education toolkit is one of my Biodiversity & Evolution of Protista & Animalia projects. We were given topic on ticks and mites. My group members and I decided to go to UPM and interview their lecturer, Professor Madya Dr. Shaik Mohamed Amin Babjee. The pictures shown are result from his research.

Ticks and mites are belonging to Acarina. The diversity of the Acari is extraordinary and its fossil history goes back to at least the early Devonian period. Ticks and mites have a segmented body with the segments organised into two tagmata that are prosoma (cephalothorax) and a opisthosoma ( abdomen).An adult ticks and mites have four pairs of legs (nymphal stage) while young ticks and mites have three pairs of legs (larval stage).The mouth parts consists of chelicerae, pedipalp and hypostome may be adapted for biting, stinging, sawing or sucking. They live in practically every habitat include aquatic (freshwater and seawater) and terrestrial species. Many are parasitic. They never have antennae.