All Tick and Mite Families (Acari)

Tick and Mite Families (Acari) is a Browse By group of the Nature Atlas that gathers families of ticks and mites, the small arachnids of the group Acari, such as Ixodidae, the hard ticks, which take their name from the hard shield on their back that the soft ticks lack and which feed on the blood of mammals, birds and reptiles. An entry belongs here when its own cited article describes a family of ticks or mites. It excludes the spider families, which have a group of their own, and it excludes the horseshoe crabs and the insects. The group lets a reader compare the blood-feeding ticks and the many free-living mites with the spiders that are their closest large relatives.