tick loads

Male sandies often have more ticks than females; perhaps due to increased wandering looking for females, or maybe something to do with reduced fitness after all their combat and mating exertions - at the site where these photos were taken, the males have huge numbers of ticks on them, which must have some impact on their health.  Any thoughts about why males have more ticks than females generally?

Isn't it body-warmth that attracts ticks? I wonder whether the males, being more active, are warmer. What I've wondered - and asked here before - is why the ticks always go to that area just behind the armpit. Is that the warmest part of the body for some reason?

That's interesting. One then has to assume that the ticks know that, and indeed know how to find their way to that spot, either by having some sort of concept of the lizard's whole shape, which seems unlikely, or by being guided by some sort of information, such as heat or chemical trace.

Having struggled to remove ticks from my own body, I'm not convinced. Scratching them off is a very bad idea. The jaws remain in your flesh, and the area of the bite gets very itchy and becomes infected, nearly always. I don't see why it should be different for lizards.

That area behind the armpit is where you see the heartbeat movement, isn't it? Perhaps that movement attracts the ticks, and perhaps that area is warmest because close to the heart.