Family of ticks (superfamily Ixodoidea, order Acarina), the soft ticks, so called because of their wrinkled, leathery, tuberculated appearance that fills out when the tick is engorged with blood. A. contains 4 genera : Argas, Ornithodoros, Otobius, and Antricola; argasid ticks, chiefly species of Ornithodoros, harbor and transmit spirochetes of the genus Borrelia that cause relapsing fever in birds and mammals.
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Ar·gas·i·dae är-'gas-ə-.dē n pl a family of ticks of the superfamily Ixodoidea that comprises the soft ticks and includes a number of medically and economically important ticks all of which lack a scutum and exhibit no marked sexual dimorphism see ARGAS, ORNITHODOROS
ar·gas·id -əd adj
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n.
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Ar·gas·i·dae (ahr-gasґĭ-de) the soft ticks, a family of the superfamily Ixodoidea, distinguished from the hard ticks (Ixodidae) by absence of the scutum. Genera of medical or veterinary interest include Argas, Ornithodoros, and Otobius.Medical dictionary. 2011.