Fig. 1

Complete network of Ixodes spp., families and orders of hosts, arranged using the Force Atlas 2 algorithm. Circles (nodes) are taxa, but only hosts carry a label for improved readability (the same figure with the complete set of labels is available as Additional file 1, allowing on-screen zoom). The lines (links) between pairs of nodes are relationships between ticks and hosts (i.e. a species of tick reported on a family of hosts). The width of the line is proportional to the number of co-occurring events, but the length results only from the algorithm producing the chart. Colors are clusters or groups of ticks and hosts that interact more frequently among them than with other taxa. Labels indicate the main groups of vertebrates