Note the circular dark spot above the mouthpart . . . The shield does not change as the tick engorges and it is the key component, along with mouthparts in identifying different ticks. Because the engorged deer tick is often confused with the brown dog tick, we have included the same photo series so you can compare the two species. Although the shield appears dark and similar in shape the shorter mouthparts of the brown dog tick are easy to identify. Brown dog ticks seldom attack humans.
Brown dog tick engorgement sequence.