The University of Edinburgh's Home Page
Sculptures by Phyllis Bone
Natural History HomeThe Aubrey Manning Gallery - A Virtual MuseumCollectionsTree of Life
Brief HistoryFull HistorySculptures by Phyllis Bone


THE TICK COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION
IMPORTANCE OF TICKS
HARD TICKS
SOFT TICKS
HISTORY OF COLLECTION



HISTORY OF TICK COLLECTION



The Tick Collection is part of the parasitology collections of the Natural History Collection. The specimens amassed during the last century represented all groups of parasites - including ectoparasitic arthropods - and the arthropod vectors of disease. The arthropod specimens were used both for teaching parasitology and entomology courses for degrees in human and veterinary medicine and the biological sciences and for research. The Parasitology collection was founded at the beginning of the last century by James Hartley Ashworth, who was appointed in 1901 to teach entomology and parasitology.

James Hartley Ashworth, Professor of Natural History 1927-1936 Amblyomma variegatum Dr John Alan Campbell, Lecturer in Parasitology 1963-1980

The earliest ticks were collected between 1906 and 1912: Hyalomma anatolicum from Aden in 1906; Amblyomma variegatum and Aponomma exornatum from Nigeria in 1907; Dermacentor rhinocerotis from 'Nyasaland ' in 1909; Amblyomma variegatum from Sierra Leone in 1913; Ixodes ricinus and Ixodes caledonicus from Scotland in 1910 and 1911 respectively; Ixodes uriae from the Shetland Islands and Ixodes hexagonus from Wales in 1912. Ashworth collaborated with Nuttall in describing Ixodes caledonicus in 1910.

Collecting continued throughout the 1920s to the 1950s and then acclerated enormously when Dr J. Alan Campbell was appointed as Lecturer in Parasitology in 1963. The bulk of the Collection was amasssed from 1963 until 1980 when Alan Campbell died prematurely. During this time, ticks appeared to have poured in from all over the globe and from all kinds of domestic and wild animals - reptiles, birds, marsupials, mammals, including the odd human, grass, sand and human habitations. Alan Campbell and his post-graduate students were the major collectors with contributions from eminent entomologists - A.E. Cameron, D.S. Kettle, D.S. Saunders, R. Sutherst, G.Theiler. Several University of Edinburgh expeditions to different parts of the world made major contributions of ticks from wild animals. A large, specialised collection of ticks from wild animals in Ghana was collected by Dr Y. Ntiamoa-Baidu of the Ghanian Wildlife Department as part of her study on the ticks of the grass-cutter, Thyronomys swinderianus, in the 1970s.



INTRODUCTION
IMPORTANCE OF TICKS
HARD TICKS
SOFT TICKS
HISTORY OF COLLECTION


Copyright. The copyright to all material published here is held by the University of Edinburgh. Photographs by Richard Matthews and Alan Walker. Tick Web design by Richard Matthews.