Preface 



The Nuttall collection of ticks, which 

 had never been revised and updated in 

 toto, was discussed in the autumn of 

 1976 with the acarology staff of the 

 British Museum (Natural History), This 

 collection had been donated to the 

 British Museum (Nat, Hist,) in 1939 by 

 the Molteno Institute for Research in 

 Parasitology, Cambridge University, The 

 staff agreed that to have this important 

 historical collection, rich in type 

 specimens, entirely reidentified and 

 updated would benefit the Museum, I 

 agreed that, as a systematist on Ixodoi- 

 dea from the Rocky Mountain Laboratories 

 (RML), UoS. Public Health Service, it 

 would be advantageous for RML because we 

 were entering all data relating to the 

 two largest tick collections in the 

 world, the RML collection and that of 

 Harry Hoogstraal, Naval Medical Research 

 Unit No. 3 (NAMRU-3), Cairo, Egypt, into 

 the computer at the U,S, National Museum 

 of Natural History, With the addition 

 of Professor Nuttall 's collection, data 

 on the three most important tick collec- 

 tions in the world would become available 

 to researchers. In addition, the Nuttall 

 collection contains type specimens for 

 over 150 tick species and numerous spe- 

 cies of medical and veterinary importance 



collected from all over the worla. Accu- 

 rate determination of these species 

 would be beneficial to all tick workers, 



I began a year's visit to the British 

 Museum (Nat, Hist,) in August 1977 for 

 the purpose of reidentifying the Nuttall 

 tick collection. This research was sup- 

 ported by the Office of International 

 Health, National Institutes of Health, 

 Bethesda, Md. 



This publication brings up to date, in a 

 slightly revised form, Nuttall 's "Cata- 

 logue of Ticks," a three-volume hand- 

 written journal, never before published 

 but certainly a work that leading tick 

 specialists have found one of the most 

 useful single references on the Ixoooi- 

 dea. The Nuttall catalogue, as now 

 updated and revised, is a historical 

 record of an exceedingly important group 

 of ectoparasites. Because of Professor 

 Nuttall 's diligent listing of all rele- 

 vant collection data relating to his 

 ticks, combined with those data from the 

 RML and NAMRU-3 tick collections, we 

 will undoubtedly be able to better under- 

 stand tick-host relationships, geographi- 

 cal distribution patterns, and seasonal 

 dynamics within the Ixodoidea. 



