Tick movies

Movie selection	File size	Playing time	Download time on BT Broadband*
1. Engorged tick righting itself - a useful trick if upended!	0.9 MB	9 secs	20 secs
2. A tick walking in a Petri dish	0.6 MB	9 secs	10 secs
3. "Tangle of ticks" - 47 live ticks together in one place **	1.0 MB	16 secs	13 secs
4. "Tangle of ticks - II" - 72 live ticks together in one place ***	0.6 MB	8 secs	15 secs
5. Seven pairs of mating sheep ticks - static arrangement	0.3 MB	8 secs	20 secs
6. Sheep tick nymph on finger, showing the rate of movement	1.4 MB	5 secs	9 secs
7. Nymph gut contents - I - x400 with zoom ^{26 May 2009}	2.9 MB	11 secs	13 secs
8. Nymph gut contents - II - x1,000 with zoom ^{26 May 2009}	2.9 MB	10 secs	6 secs
9. Nymph gut contents - III - x1,000 with zoom ^{27 May 2009}	1.8 MB	7 secs	5 secs
10. Nymph gut contents - IV - x1,000 with zoom ^{13 Jun 2009}	3.6 MB	15 secs	8 secs
11. Nymph gut contents - V - x1,000 with zoom ^{13 Jun 2009 Very small frenetically wriggling entities. The cells are salivary gland tissue? Scales:} ^{Inner ring diameter = 13 micrometres - this is a correction (22 Jun 2009); outer double ring thickness = 1 micrometre.}	4.0 MB	14 secs	11 secs
12. Nymph gut contents - VI - x1,000 with zoom ^{13 Jun 2009 A long "wriggly" - a chain of rod-like bacteria?}	3.8 MB	14 secs	10 secs
13. Nymph gut contents - VII - x1,000 with zoom ^{14 Jun 2009}Definite long, doubled up spiralling microbe - spirochaete? The bacteria are in a depth of saline and come in and out of focus in the microscope. This was one of four seen - at first I ignored them as something odd - they were partly doubled-up which may be a result of the non-physiological nature of the saline - missing electrolytes and incorrect pH (acidity / alkalinity)? Scale: the outer double ring is 21 micrometres in diameter: outer double ring thickness = 1 micrometre.	1.9 MB	15 secs	29 secs
14. Yarner Wood Horse Circle - Habitat Starts looking S.E. along main track past the circle, with circle at left, panning left and ending looking along/around the circle.^{19 Jul 2009}	3.8 MB	22 secs	20 secs
15. Yarner Horse Circle Leaf Litter Picks up where previous movie (n. 14) stops, looking along/around the circle and panning down to the ground to show oak leaf litter, sparse grass and short whortleberry. ^{19 Jul 2009}	2 MB	18 secs	8 secs
16. Yarner Horse Circle Extended Starts looking N.W. along main track past Horse Circle. Shows rucksack and mini-scythe (for cutting bracken in the circle, with permission) for scale re. the height that the undergrowth has now reached and the reason for abandoning this sampling sweep. ^{19 Jul 2009}	3 MB	32 secs	10 secs
17. Ringmoor Cows - 1 Showing another hazard of blanket dragging on Dartmoor - cows! ^{20 Jul 2009}	3 MB	11 secs	10 secs
18. Ringmoor Cows - 2 Similar to the previous movie but filmed on the move, backwards! ^{20 Jul 2009}	2 MB	8 secs	7 secs
19. Ringmoor Down Habitat Showing how desolate this area is. It is not necessarily very high, at typically 300 metres (1,000 feet), but it is very exposed and wind-swept - listen to the sound track, and this was a non-windy day! ^{21 Jul 2009}	3.9 MB	44 secs	7 secs
20. Brisworthy Plantation Habitat Showing the stubby nature of the bracken area beside the plantation compared to the high bracken in the shelter of Yarner Wood (movies 14-16 ). This habitat contiguous with Ringmoor Down (movie 19). ^{21 Jul 2009}	1.9 MB	16 secs	6 secs

* Depends on internet use at the time
** A 'still' photograph of the 47 ticks, cleaned-up, can be seen here and on the Photos page.
*** A 'still' photograph of the 72 ticks, cleaned-up, can be seen here and on the Photos page.
These (47 & 72 ticks) are all hedgehog ticks, removed from two sheepdogs - that is correct!

Incidental photos taken while looking at 1st nymph under the Leitz Nomarski microscope


Low power Nomarski image of the decapitated nymph-showing manually extruded gut contents, at top-left. Magnification: x250 plus zoom on the camera. The tick body in this image is probably about 1.4 mm long. The on-screen image on a 800x600 display is 50 mm, therefore the magnification is about x35.	Still image of gut content entities under oil immersion (x1,000 + zoom). This can be seen more dramatically in the gut content movies above. The moving microbes are in the 1 to 5 micrometer size range. (1 micrometer = 1/1,000 mm)

Nymph foot, showing the terminal claws - highly magnified.

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