Abstract
Ixodes ricinus
is a European species of hard‐bodied ticks sucking blood as a temporary ectoparasite of wild and domestic mammals as well as humans. It has a three‐host life cycle, with the larvae, nymphs, and adults feeding blood from their respective hosts. Adults are sexually dimorphic in behavior and morphology, with the males feeding as larvae and nymphs but taking only facultative, small blood meals as adults. Females feed during all life stages. However, as adults, they take only one large blood meal, drop from their host when fully engorged, lay thousands of eggs, and die. One of the outstanding morphological features of the adult female
Ixodes ricinus
is the enormous volume change (>100 times) that occurs during the single meal and the associated changes of tissues and cells. This and the follwoing chapters introduce into the microscopic and functional anatomy of this temporary parasite.