The largest specimen in the top-center is a male American dog tick, Dermacentor variablis. To the right are three stages of Ixodes scapularis, the female (largest), male (intermediate size) and nymph (smallest). To the left of the dog tick are three stages of the lone-star tick, Amblyomma amercianum. The female is the largest one (with the white dot), the intermediate sized lone-star is the male and the smallest is the nymph. The ruler is in 16ths of an inch. Photo by Jim Occi.