1.10.3 Iranian Acarology
Jalal Afshar (1936) published the first paper on Iranian Acari as a group of cotton
pests. In the early 1940s, veterinary acarology started at the Razi Institute, Karaj, with
work on ectoparasitic ticks of livestock. A list of mite as agricultural pests was
prepared by Davachi (1949). Later, Farahbakhsh presented the first checklist of
mites in 1961. Also, Khalil-Manesh (1969, 1973) had reports on phytophagous
mites of Iran. The first paper about Iranian mites presented by Sepasgozarian in
1971 at the International Congress of Acarology in Prague. He wrote “Until twenty
years ago there was no problem of mites affecting our agricultural crops. Since then,
the biological equilibrium has been disturbed and the population of useful predators
decimated because of agricultural mechanization and the use of manufactured pesticides such as organochlorides. The population of mites increased gradually and this
caused problems in agricultural areas (Sepasgozarian 1973)”. Sepasgozarian (1977)
provided all consolidated works related to Iranian mite fauna (Cokendolpher et al.
2019). Some salient works on Iranian acarology include those by Sepasgozarian
(1973), Khalil-Manesh (1969), Khalil-Manesh (1973), Daneshvar and Denmark
(1982), Kamali et al. (2001) and Akrami and Saboori (2012). During new emerged
generation of Iranain acarologists, Karim Kamali had a nostalgic role by supervising
and teaching acarology across the universities including the University of Tehran,
Chamran University of Ahwaz and Tarbiat Modares University (Fig. 1.16). The
Acarological Society of Iran (ASI) (http://www.acarology.ir) established on 30 August
2008. The ASI has members from different countries and publishes a newsletter and
an international journal, Persian Journal of Acarology (https://www.biotaxa.org/pja).
The society arranged International Persian Congress of Acarology. The third one was
held in 2017 (Hajiqanbar and Saboori 2017) (Fig. 1.17).
Fig. 1.16 Hossein Sepasgozarian (right) and Karim Kamali (left), pioneers of Iranian Acarology
professors. (Courtesy of Alireza Saboori, University of Tehran)
16
J. Karimi and S. Kamali
Jalal Afshar (1936) published the first paper on Iranian Acari as a group of cotton
pests. In the early 1940s, veterinary acarology started at the Razi Institute, Karaj, with
work on ectoparasitic ticks of livestock. A list of mite as agricultural pests was
prepared by Davachi (1949). Later, Farahbakhsh presented the first checklist of
mites in 1961. Also, Khalil-Manesh (1969, 1973) had reports on phytophagous
mites of Iran. The first paper about Iranian mites presented by Sepasgozarian in
1971 at the International Congress of Acarology in Prague. He wrote “Until twenty
years ago there was no problem of mites affecting our agricultural crops. Since then,
the biological equilibrium has been disturbed and the population of useful predators
decimated because of agricultural mechanization and the use of manufactured pesticides such as organochlorides. The population of mites increased gradually and this
caused problems in agricultural areas (Sepasgozarian 1973)”. Sepasgozarian (1977)
provided all consolidated works related to Iranian mite fauna (Cokendolpher et al.
2019). Some salient works on Iranian acarology include those by Sepasgozarian
(1973), Khalil-Manesh (1969), Khalil-Manesh (1973), Daneshvar and Denmark
(1982), Kamali et al. (2001) and Akrami and Saboori (2012). During new emerged
generation of Iranain acarologists, Karim Kamali had a nostalgic role by supervising
and teaching acarology across the universities including the University of Tehran,
Chamran University of Ahwaz and Tarbiat Modares University (Fig. 1.16). The
Acarological Society of Iran (ASI) (http://www.acarology.ir) established on 30 August
2008. The ASI has members from different countries and publishes a newsletter and
an international journal, Persian Journal of Acarology (https://www.biotaxa.org/pja).
The society arranged International Persian Congress of Acarology. The third one was
held in 2017 (Hajiqanbar and Saboori 2017) (Fig. 1.17).
Fig. 1.16 Hossein Sepasgozarian (right) and Karim Kamali (left), pioneers of Iranian Acarology
professors. (Courtesy of Alireza Saboori, University of Tehran)
16
J. Karimi and S. Kamali