garapata

plural garapatas

1. USA kind of wood tick.

   […] principally among the former were the garapatas, a vicious species of wood-tick, which swarm almost every leaf and plant growing near the ground […]

   1873, United States. Navy Department, Annual Reports of the Navy Department, page 188

   1 more example

   One of the worst annoyances of their visit to Uxmal was that whenever they moved about they became covered with garapatas. The garapata is a tick so small that it is hardly perceptible to the naked eye, but it is capable of making a bite or sting like that of a red ant or a hot needle.

   1890, Thomas Wallace Knox, The Boy Travellers in Mexico, page 508