Female ticks had significantly less microbial diversity (alpha diversity) than male ticks as measured by Faith’s Phylogenetic Diversity which measures diversity based on phylogenetic tree lengths (Faith’s PD, two sample t-test; t = 3.63, P < 0.01; Fig. 2). Although there was no significant difference between the mean number of Rickettsia and Francisella sequences in male versus female ticks (Student’s t test P = 0.36, 0.06, respectively), Rickettsia and Francisella endosymbionts comprised a greater percentage of the microbiome of female ticks than male ticks 74.9% and 60.1%, respectively (Student’s t test P = 0.02; Fig. 3).