CreatureData

Pine tick

Amblyomma americanum Linnaeus, 1758

Status not recordedarachnids

The pine tick (Amblyomma americanum) is an arachnid in the family Ixodidae and the order Ixodida. It is also called the Lone star tick, and its scientific name was given by Linnaeus, 1758.

Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
Photo: Photo Credit: James Gathany Content Providers(s): CDC/ Michael L. Levin, Ph. D. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the pine tick

It belongs to the genus Amblyomma, the class Arachnida and the phylum Arthropoda, and the Catalogue of Life lists it as living, not extinct.

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
30.4 days – 60.9 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Reproduction
Eggssrc for Reproduction
Resting metabolic rate
0.00144 mWsrc for Resting metabolic rate
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

Photos of the pine tick

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
NIAID · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
NIAID · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
Photo Credit: James Gathany Content Providers(s): CDC/ Dr · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
NIAID · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
NIAID · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
NIAID · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)
NIAID · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Where does the pine tick live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

Also listed for parts of: United States (Hawaii).

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

What is the pine tick?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

Amblyomma americanum, also known as the lone star tick, northeastern water tick, turkey tick, and cricker tick, is a type of tick indigenous to much of the eastern United States and Mexico that bites painlessly and commonly goes unnoticed, remaining attached to its host for as long as seven days until it is fully engorged with blood. It bites aggressively, and its larvae may transfer themselves to skin from discarded clothing that is put back on. The sexually dimorphic adult female lone star tick bears a silvery-white, somewhat star-shaped spot near the center of the posterior portion of its dorsal shield (scutum); adult males conversely have varied white streaks or spots around the margins of their shields.

It is to the female's identifying spot, not to the nickname of the state of Texas, that A. americanum owes the name lone star tick, while it owes the name turkey tick to the wild turkeys that are a common host in its immature stages in some Midwestern U.S. states. It is the primary vector of Ehrlichia chaffeensis, which causes human monocytic ehrlichiosis, and Ehrlichia ewingii, which causes human and canine granulocytic ehrlichiosis. Its bite may also cause a human to develop alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to non-catarrhine mammalian meat. Other disease-causing bacterial agents isolated from lone star ticks include Francisella tularensis, Rickettsia amblyommii, and Coxiella burnetti.

From the Wikipedia article “Amblyomma americanum” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amblyomma_americanum&oldid=1384473172), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the pine tick endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the pine tick classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classArachnida
  4. orderIxodida
  5. familyIxodidae
  6. genusAmblyomma
  7. SpeciesAmblyomma americanum Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms Acarus americanus, Acarus nigua, Amblyomma americanum, Amblyomma americanum, Amblyomma foreli, Amblyomma unipunctatum, Amblyomma unipunctum, Euthesius americanus, Ixodes americanus, Ixodes nigra, Ixodes nigua, Ixodes orbicularis, Ixodes orbiculatus, Ixodes unipictus, Ixodes unipuncta, Ixodes unipunctata, Rhynchoprion americanum

Other names and names in other languages (9)
  • Lone star tickEnglish
  • Lone star tickEnglish
  • klíště americkéCzech
  • Lone-Star-ZeckeGerman
  • EinzelsternzeckeGerman
  • Garrapata estrella solitariaSpanish
  • La garrapata de la estrella solitariaSpanish
  • Tique étoiléeFrench
  • Tique étoilée d’AmériqueFrench

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistITISWikidata

Relatives of the pine tick

Other species in the same genus Amblyomma.

Bont tick

Amblyomma hebraeum

IxodidaeNo free photo yet

ComparePine tick vs Cayenne tickPine tick vs Gulf coast tickPine tick vs Bont tickPine tick vs Tuatara tick

Common questions

Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.

What kind of animal is the pine tick?

The pine tick is an arachnid in the family Ixodidae, within the order Ixodida and the class Arachnida.

What is the scientific name of the pine tick?

Its scientific name is Amblyomma americanum, placing it in the genus Amblyomma.

What is another name for the pine tick?

The pine tick is also called the Lone star tick.

Who named the pine tick and when?

The scientific name Amblyomma americanum is attributed to Linnaeus, 1758.

Is the pine tick extinct?

No, the Catalogue of Life lists the pine tick as living, not extinct.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/pine-tick

MLA

“Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/pine-tick.

BibTeX
@misc{pine_tick_2026,
  title = {Pine tick (Amblyomma americanum)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/pine-tick},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}