Happy Fourth of July!
I spent most of this week processing tick submissions in the lab. The ticks are grouped in vials of up to five if they were collected at the same location and time, and if they are the same species and life stage. For example, five lone star nymphs could be stored in the same vial if they were all from the same park and collected on the same day. I moved ticks to the -20°C freezer once they were identified and labeled, then recorded the information with a Qualtrics survey that could be compiled into an Excel sheet.
One challenging aspect of identifying ticks is that species can look very similar, especially in the larval and nymphal stages. These are both Ixodes nymphs, but the one on the bottom is Ixodes cookei, with shorter palps among other identifying characteristics. The one on top is Ixodes scapularis, with longer, more pointed palps. I referenced several different identification keys when two ticks looked similar like this, and also used pictures online to compare.