Windsor County, Vermont

Dermacentor variabilis, also known as the American dog tick or wood tick, is a species of tick that is known to carry bacteria responsible for several diseases in humans, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia (Francisella tularensis). It is one of the most well-known of hard ticks. D. variabilis is not the primary vector for Lyme disease, which is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. But a study in Santa Cruz, California, found Borrelia burgdorferi in D.... less ↑

Ixodes scapularis, commonly known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick (although some people reserve the latter term for Ixodes pacificus, which is found on the West Coast of the USA), and in some parts of the USA as the bear tick, is a hard-bodied tick (family Ixodidae) of the eastern and northern Midwestern United States. It is a vector for several diseases of animals and humans (e.g., Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, etc). They are known... less ↑

The spider species Argiope aurantia is commonly known as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Writing Spider, or Corn Spider. It is common to the lower 48 of the United States, Hawaii, southern Canada, Mexico, and Central America. They have distinctive yellow and black markings on their abdomens and a mostly white cephalothorax. Males range from 5 to 9 mm (0.2–0.35"); females from 19 to 28 mm (0.75–1.1"). Like other members of Argiope they are considered harmless to... less ↑

Pisaurina brevipes is a species of "nursery web spider" that is found in the eastern half of the North American continent, from Ontario down to Florida and west to Kansas. These spiders are distinguished from the rather similar Pisaurina mira spiders by having relatively shorter legs. The ration of leg length I to cephalothorax length is less that 2.0 in males and less than 1.4 in females, whereas for P. mira the leg length I is... less ↑