- Dermacentor
- An ornate, characteristically marked genus of hard ticks (family Ixodidae) that possess eyes and 11 festoons; it consists of some 20 species whose members commonly attack dogs, humans, and other mammals. [derm- + G. kentor, a goader]- D. albopictus the winter tick, a species found principally on horses, cattle, elk, moose, and deer in Canada and the northern and western United States; it is a one-host tick, but humans are sometimes attacked when skinning or dressing deer.- D. andersoni the wood tick; the vector of Rocky Mountain spotted fever; also transmits tularemia and causes tick paralysis; there are characteristic black and white markings on the large scutum of the male.- D. marginatus a tick species found across Europe and the vector of a human rickettsiosis caused by Rickettsia slovaca.- D. occidentalis the Pacific Coast tick, a species found on all domestic herbivores, deer, dogs, humans, and other animals in California and Oregon.- D. reticulatus a common species attacking sheep, oxen, goats, and deer, and sometimes troublesome to humans; it is found in Europe, Asia, and America.- D. variabilis the American dog tick, a species that is a common pest of dogs along the eastern seaboard of the U.S., a vector of tularemia, and a principal vector of Rickettsia rickettsii which causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the central and eastern U.S.; may also cause tick paralysis.
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Der·ma·cen·tor 'dər-mə-.sent-ər n a large widely distributed genus of ornate ticks of the family Ixodidae including a number that attack humans and other mammals and several that are vectors of important diseases (as Rocky Mountain spotted fever)* * *
n.a genus of hard tick, worldwide in distribution, the adults of which are parasites of humans and other mammals. The wood tick, D. andersoni, transmits Rocky Mountain spotted fever to humans in the western USA and the dog tick, D. variabilis, is the vector of the milder form of this disease in the east.* * *
Der·ma·cen·tor (dur″mə-senґtər) [derma- + Gr. kentein to prick, stab] a genus of ticks of the family Ixodidae that are important as transmitters of disease.
Medical dictionary. 2011.
