Richard G. Robbins

Alberto A. Guglielmone

Ticks of the family Ixodidae, commonly known as hard ticks, occur worldwide and are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of agents pathogenic to humans. Of the 729 currently recognized hard tick species, 283 (39%) have been implicated as human parasites, but the literature on these species is both immense and scattered, with the result that health professionals are often unable to determine whether a particular tick specimen, once identified, represents a species that is an actual or potential threat to its human host. In this book, two leading tick specialists provide a list of the species of Ixodidae that have been reported to feed on humans, with emphasis on their geographical distribution, principal hosts, and the tick life history stages associated with human parasitism. Also included is a discussion of 21 ixodid species that, while having been found on humans, are either not known to have actually fed or may have been misidentified. Additionally, 107 tick names that have appeared in papers on tick parasitism of humans, and that might easily confuse non-taxonomists, are shown to be invalid under the rules of zoological nomenclature. Although the species of ticks that attack humans have long attracted the attention of researchers, few comprehensive studies of these species have been attempted. By gleaning and analyzing the results of over 1,100 scientific papers published worldwide, the authors have provided an invaluable survey of hard tick parasitism that is unprecedented in its scope and detail.

A Global Overview

Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) Parasitizing Humans

Wrestling with a would-be assassin, inspecting the toilets in a rural prison, responding to a challenge from his mistress's enraged husband—all these matters could be part of a Russian provincial governor's day. More often, he was entangled in administrative routine, troubled by a steady flow of orders from St. Petersburg, and tormented by complaints from local powerbrokers. What was His Excellency—the tsar's viceroy—a bureaucratic flunky or a harassed politician? Drawing on a broad range of materials in Soviet and Western archives, Richard Robbins here gives us a richly textured portrait of the Russian provincial governors in the last years of the old regime. He focuses on the governors as people and working officials, emphasizing their relations with government bureaucrats, representatives of the privileged classes, peasants, and proletarians. Robbins uses anecdotal evidence to good effect in drawing a vivid picture of provincial life at the turn of the century. He persuades us that the popular image, etched by Gogol and Dostoyevsky, of the governor as incompetent and corrupt, is in need of revision. With convincing detail, he demonstrates that the viceroys of the late imperial period were increasingly professional, and some of them proved to be remarkably skilled politicians.

Russian Provincial Governors in the Last Years of the Empire

The Tsar's Viceroys

Agustín Estrada-Peña

Trevor N. Petney

Ivan G. Horak

Dmitry A. Apanaskevich

This book has been designed to summarize current, essential information for every one of the world’s 700+ hard tick species. Under each species name, we will cite the original description, followed by information on type depositories, known stages, distribution (by zoogeographic region and ecoregion), hosts, and human infestation (if any). Each species account will also include a list of salient references and, where necessary, remarks on systematic status. We envision eight chapters: six devoted to the major ixodid tick genera (Amblyomma, Dermacentor, Haemaphysalis, Hyalomma, Ixodes, Rhipicephalus), one covering eight minor genera (including two that are fossil), and a concluding summary chapter. There will be two tables on host associations and zoogeography in each major genus chapter, as well as five tables in the summary chapter, for a total of 17 tables. No similar synopsis of the world’s hard tick species exists in any language.​

(Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae)

The Hard Ticks of the World

Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky was a witness to Russia’s unfolding tragedy—from Tsar Alexander II’s Great Reforms, through world war, revolution, the rise of a new regime, and finally, his country’s descent into terror under Stalin. But Dzhunkovsky was not just a passive observer—he was an active participant in his troubled and turbulent times, often struggling against the tide. In the centennial of the Russian revolution, his story takes on special significance. Highly readable, Overtaken by the Night captivates on many levels. It is a gripping biography of a man of many faces, a behind-the-curtain look at the inner workings of Russian politics at its highest levels, and also an engrossing account of ordinary Russians engulfed by swiftly moving political and social currents. Dzhunkovsky served as a confidant in the tsar’s imperial court and as governor in Moscow province during and after the 1905 revolution. In 1913 he became the empire’s security chief, determined to reform the practices of the dreaded tsarist political police, the Okhrana. Dismissed from office for daring to investigate and warn Tsar Nicholas about Rasputin, his path led him into combat on the battlefields of the First World War. A natural leader of men, he held his units together even as revolution spilled into the trenches. Arrested as a counterrevolutionary in 1918 and imprisoned until 1921, Dzhunkovsky avoided execution thanks to an outpouring of public support and his reputation for treating revolutionaries with fairness and dignity. Although later he consulted for the Stalinist secret police, he was tried and executed in 1938 as an enemy of the people. Based on Dzhunkovsky’s detailed memoirs and extensive archival research, Overtaken by the Night paints a fascinating picture of an important figure. Dzhunkovsky's incredible life reveals much about a long and crucial period in Russian history. It is a story of Russia in revolution reminiscent of the fictional Doctor Zhivago, but perhaps even more extraordinary for being true.

Richard G. Robbins

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