- published: 15 Mar 2011
- views: 478440
Ixodes scapularis is 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. It is a hard-bodied tick (family Ixodidae) of the eastern and northern Midwestern United States. It is a vector for several diseases of animals, including humans (Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, etc) and is known as the deer tick due to its habit of parasitizing the white-tailed deer.
The image shown at the upper right—and in fact, most images of Ixodes scapularis that are commonly available—show an adult that is unengorged, that is, an adult that has not had a blood meal. This is natural, since the ticks are generally removed immediately upon discovery to minimize the chance of disease. However, the abdomen that holds blood is so much larger when engorged and looks so different from the rest of the tick that it would be easy to assume that an engorged specimen of Ixodes scapularis is an entirely different tick (see photo at left).
I am the boy your mother wanted you to meet
But I am broken and torn with heels at my feet (?)
And with your purest light why don't you shine on me
Well I should have been an angel
But I'm too dumb to speak
Now as she gets nearer, the visions get clearer
I'm kneeling, weeping
I will hold her dear
Oh, If your eyes water, you've got your favorite number to spin
And oh, what a crying shame, a crying shame
What we became
Murdered my throat, screaming bloody all night
Hit him with a book and how he crumbles
Oh you should have seen the arches tumble
Their golden no more
Now I'm smiling in my blood
I'm caught in a whirlwind
I'm going to heaven
I'm standing on trial and it's painted on canvas
An eternal testament to how we are so animalistic
And oh, what a crying shame, what a crying shame
What we became
I bow my head in the morning light and say goodnight
I held her hand and I, I kissed her eyes
Stumbled down the stairs and hang my self on high
And I started for the town that i have a front yard