ISSN 1362-1971
An international journal of the Systematic and Applied Acarology Society, published since 1996
[Aims] [Editors] [Content] [Subscriptions] [Contact details] [Society Homepage]
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ISSN 1362-1971 An international journal of the Systematic and Applied Acarology Society, published since 1996 [Aims] [Editors] [Content] [Subscriptions] [Contact details] [Society Homepage] |
Systematic & Applied Acarology
(2009) 14, 77–80.Review of the Third Edition of
A Manual of AcarologyBRUCE HALLIDAY
CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. E-mail: Bruce.Halliday@csiro.au
2009, viii + 807 pp. ISBN 978-0-89672-620-8 Publisher's price USD$175.00 Publisher contacts: ttup@ttu.edu, www.ttup.ttu.eduG.W. Krantz and D.E. Walter (editors) A Manual of Acarology,Third Edition. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock Texas, April
Every acarology laboratory in the world has a battered and dog-eared copy of the 1978 Second
Edition of A Manual of Acarology, by Jerry Krantz. For over 30 years the Manual has been one of the fundamental tools of the trade in the science of acarology, second in importance only to a good microscope. But 30 years is a long life span for any textbook, and the Second Edition of the Manual was definitely starting to show its age. Science has moved on, and has brought with it an explosive increase in our knowledge of mites, both in the sheer numbers of known taxa, and in the development of new technologies that have revealed previously unsuspected levels of complexity and detail. Acarologists have been anxiously awaiting the Third Edition, as a consolidation of the enormous changes that have been going on in acarology at all levels. They will not be disappointed. The number of families of mites has increased from just over 400 in 1978, to an amazing 540 now. There can be very few other animal groups that have grown in family-level diversity at that rate. The growth in the number of taxa covered has been accompanied by significant advances in comparative morphology, genetics, molecular biology, and ecology. These increases in knowledge have been matched by an increase in the size of the Manual, from 509 pages to a hefty 807 pages.......Full article in PDF Open access