Research and increase of expertise in arachno-entomology are urgently needed

Abstract

Considering the contents of international journals of parasitology dealing with broader topics inside this field show that rather a few papers appear with studies in the discipline of arachno-entomology. In the journals Journal of Parasitology, Parasitology Research and Trends in Parasitology, the relations of published papers on protozoology, helminthology and arachno-entomology showed that in all three journals, papers on protozoans were the most common, while those on helminths of any kind reached the second place being rather as common as the protozoan papers in Parasitology Research and in the Journal of Parasitology. In Trends of Parasitology, however, the papers on helminths reached only about 25% of the numbers published on protozoan topics. But in all three journals-and this is important-the papers on arachno-entomological themes were scarce reaching less than the half of the protozoan papers in Parasitology Research, and only about 15% in the Journal of Parasitology and in the Trends of Parasitology. These disproportions between the three great subdivisions of targets in the focus of parasitological research are dangerous, since this lack exists already for several decades and thus led to a backlog of unsolved increasing problems that are caused by ticks, mites, insects and/or parasitic crustaceans especially in times of intensive globalization and global warming. Studies on the biology, vectorship, invasion and spreading of wanted vectors and on the control of pests and parasites belonging to the field of arachno-entomology are urgently needed.