Dermacentor variabilis, also known as the American dog tick, is a species of tick that is known to carry bacteria responsible for several diseases in humans, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever. It is one of the most well-known of hard ticks. D. variabilis does not cause Lyme disease, that is carried by the deer tick Ixodes dammini. Families Tick is the common name for the small arachnids that, along with mites, constitute the order Acarina. ... Subgroups Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... Binomial name Rickettsia rickettsii Wolbach, 1919 Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the most severe and most frequently reported rickettsial illness in the United States, and has been diagnosed throughout the Americas. ... A male Ixodes ricinus tick (smaller) copulating with a female tick (larger) Ixodid or hard ticks are ticks of the family Ixodae. ... Wikispecies has information related to: Borrelia Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. ...