Tales of the Riverbank

If we just push our way through these giant canes we should find the…splash!...stream. I’ve found the water; my right foot has at any rate. I’ve also found a rather interesting character wandering over this rock here. An eight legged arachnid but not a spider. She is one of the hard backed ticks (like books, they come in hard back and soft back) and I think that she’s a Brown Dog Tick. Although they prefer dogs as hosts (and we have plenty of hunting dogs in this area) they will take blood from any mammal including us. As she can host bacteria that would result in us catching Mediterranean spotted fever she is best avoided – like the plague as it were. I think we’ll press on.

Read on at https://niume.com/post/287623

Posted on March 26, 2017 05:38 AM by stevedaniels stevedaniels

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Pale Flax (Linum bienne)

Observer

stevedaniels

Date

March 6, 2017 05:55 PM EET

Photos / Sounds

What

Tuberculated Armadillo Pillbug (Armadillo tuberculatus)

Observer

stevedaniels

Date

March 6, 2017 04:38 PM EET

Photos / Sounds

What

Hardbacked Ticks (Family Ixodidae)

Observer

stevedaniels

Date

March 6, 2017 05:02 PM EET

Description

H punctata, the red sheep tick, is widely distributed where sheep, goats, and cattle feed in certain open forests and shrubby pastures from southwestern Asia (Iran and former USSR) to much of Europe, including southern Scandinavia and Britain. It usually does not appear in large numbers. Immatures infest birds, hedgehogs, rodents, and reptiles. H punctata can cause tick paralysis. In addition to transmitting Anaplasma, Brucella, Theileria, Babesia spp , and tularemia, different H punctata populations are infected by Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus, Tribec virus, Bhanja virus, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. http://www.merckvetmanual.com/integumentary-system/ticks/haemaphysalis-spp

Photos / Sounds

What

Cretan Seed Bug (Lygaeus creticus)

Observer

stevedaniels

Date

March 6, 2017 05:37 PM EET

Photos / Sounds

Observer

stevedaniels

Date

March 6, 2017 04:18 PM EET

Description

A very small (1st or 2nd instar) nymph.

Photos / Sounds

What

Nematodes (Phylum Nematoda)

Observer

stevedaniels

Date

March 13, 2017

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