Harry Hoogstraal

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Harry Hoogstraal
Harry Hoogstraal 1960s.jpg
Hoogstraal in the mid-1960s
Born(1917-02-24)24 February 1917
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died24 February 1986(1986-02-24) (aged 69)
Cairo, Egypt
Nationality American
Alma mater London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Scientific career
InstitutionsU.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3
Notes
Photo courtesy of Chris Maser. [1]

Harry Hoogstraal (born in Chicago, Illinois, February 24, 1917, died in Cairo, Egypt, on his 69th birthday, February 24, 1986) was an American entomologist and parasitologist. He was described as "the greatest authority on ticks and tickborne diseases who ever lived." [2] The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's Harry Hoogstraal Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Medical Entomology [3] honors his contributions to science.

Contents

Life and work

Hoogstraal earned B.A. and M.S. degrees (1938 and 1942) from the University of Illinois at Chicago, before his training was interrupted by World War II to serve as an officer entomologist (1943–1946) in the United States Army. He later received Ph.D. (1959) and D.Sc. (1971) degrees from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. As a master's degree candidate at the University of Illinois, he organized and led (1938–1941) four multi-disciplinary biological expeditions into the mountain and desert portions of western and southwestern Mexico. These resulted in the amassing of large, scientifically valuable collections of animals and plants. During World War II, Hoogstraal was assigned to the U.S. Army 19th Medical General Laboratory, near Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, where in 1945 he and Willard V. King engaged in a massive taxonomic study of the mosquitoes of that area. Their time for working up and publishing on their large and rich New Guinea mosquito collection was limited by the forward movement of the war and by the necessity for involvement in other projects in the war's aftermath, but they published descriptions of 36 new species of mosquitoes from their New Guinea collections in a series of 11 papers that contributed to an understanding of the rich and then largely unknown culicid fauna of the southwest Pacific. Additionally, their collections, deposited in the U.S. National Museum, have through the intervening years served as a rich resource to many other individuals involved in taxonomic research on Southwest Pacific mosquitoes.

With the end of World War II, Hoogstraal did not seek an early return to the United States as did most of his Army colleagues. Instead, he took his discharge in Manila and, under the auspices of the Field Museum, organized a major biological expedition into the interior of the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Palawan (1946-1947) and spent the next two years exploring and collecting in those biologically poorly known islands. The collections resulting from his efforts were the richest ever made from those portions of the Philippines. Following his return from the Philippines in 1948, he joined, as an employee of the United States Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the University of California African Expedition in 1948–1949. This began his lifelong sojourn in Africa. At the completion of this expedition he continued on for a while in Madagascar and then moved to Cairo, to organize and become Head of the Department of Medical Zoology, U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 (NAMRU-3), a position which he held for the remainder of his life.

At NAMRU-3 he devoted much of his time to gathering collections of scientifically valuable specimens from remote or little-studied areas of the world and contributing them freely to institutions and specialists everywhere. Eighteen-hour working days were the usual with him. This propensity enabled him to accomplish an enormous amount of work, as demonstrated by the fact that during his lifetime he authored or co-authored more than 500 publications, edited many more [4] [5] and directed the translation of over 1,800 scientific papers and books. [6] [7] [8] He was at one time or another a member of more than 30 professional societies, served in a volunteer capacity in at least 20 professional and editorial posts, lectured on countless occasions to scientific groups, participated in the graduate training of a number of students, and built and managed for many years an outstanding Department of Medical Zoology at NAMRU-3 in Cairo. His collaborators included such renowned parasitologists as Dr. Gertrud Theiler and Dr. Jane Brotherton Walker.

Bookplate of entomologist Harry Hoogstraal, featuring an owl of knowledge and ticks Harry Hoogstraal bookplate (clean).jpg
Bookplate of entomologist Harry Hoogstraal, featuring an owl of knowledge and ticks

Honors

During his life, Hoogstraal received a host of professional honors, [9] [10] including the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal of the American Society of Parasitologists in 1967; the Presidential Order of Merit First Class of the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1978; and the Walter Reed Medal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene also in 1978. [11] He was awarded a Doctorat Honoris Causa degree by Ain Shams University in 1978, and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Khartoum in 1983.

Species named in honor of Harry Hoogstraal

Hoogstraal's name has been extensively memorialized in scientific nomenclature. Ten years prior to his death, the number of species with the species epithet hoogstraali (and related derivations such as hoogstraalia, hoogstraaliana, and hoogstraaliter) is said to have numbered more than 200. [12]

A selection of these species includes:

Arthropods include:

Other eponymous species include the protozoan parasites Leishmania hoogstraali (McMillan, 1965) and Isospora hoogstraali (Prasad, 1961), the " candidatus " Rickettsia Rickettsia hoogstraalii Mattila et al. 2007, [14] and the nematode Icosiella hoogstraali (Schmidt & Kuntz, 1969).

Related Research Articles

Acarology

Acarology is the study of mites and ticks, the animals in the order Acarina. It is a subfield of arachnology, a subdiscipline of the field of zoology. A zoologist specializing in acarology is called an acarologist. Acarologists may also be parasitologists because many members of Acarina are parasitic. Many acarologists are studying around the world both professionally and as amateurs. The discipline is a developing science and long-awaited research has been provided for it in more recent history.

<i>Nuttalliella</i> Genus of ticks

Nuttalliella namaqua is a tick found in southern Africa from Tanzania to Namibia and South Africa, which is placed in its own family, Nuttalliellidae. It can be distinguished from ixodid ticks and argasid ticks by a combination of characteristics including the position of the stigmata, lack of setae, strongly corrugated integument, and form of the fenestrated plates. It is the most basal lineage of ticks.

<i>Ixodes</i> Genus of ticks

Ixodes is a genus of hard-bodied ticks. It includes important disease vectors of animals and humans, and some species inject toxins that can cause paralysis. Some ticks in this genus may transmit the pathogenic bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi responsible for causing Lyme disease. Additional organisms that may be transmitted by Ixodes are parasites from the genus Babesia, which cause babesiosis, and bacteria from the related genus Anaplasma, which cause anaplasmosis.

<i>Amblyomma</i> Genus of ticks

Amblyomma is a genus of hard ticks. Some are disease vectors, for example the Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Brazil or ehrlichiosis in the United States.

<i>Dermacentor</i> Genus of ticks

Dermacentor is a genus of ticks in the family Ixodidae, the hard ticks. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with native species on all continents except Australia. Most occur in the Nearctic realm.

<i>Rhipicephalus</i> Genus of ticks

Rhipicephalus is a genus of ticks in the family Ixodidae, the hard ticks, consisting of about 74 or 75 species. Most are native to tropical Africa.

<i>Haemaphysalis</i> Genus of ticks

Haemaphysalis is a genus of ticks, containing these species:

<i>Amblyomma maculatum</i> Species of tick

Amblyomma maculatum is a species of tick in the genus Amblyomma. Immatures usually infest small mammals and birds that dwell on the ground; cotton rats may be particularly favored hosts. Some recorded hosts include:

Tick dragging

Tick dragging is a method for collecting ticks used by parasitologists and other researchers studying tick populations in the wild.

Ixodes hoogstraali is a species of tick endemic to the higher mountains of southwestern Arabia. The type specimens were collected at 7,400 feet (2,300 m) elevation near Ma'bar, Yemen, on king jirds, trapped beside a well in dry fields on a rocky plateau. The species was named in honor of Harry Hoogstraal, who provided the type specimens; the species is closely related to Ixodes ugandanus Neumann, 1906.

Gertrud Theiler was a South African parasitologist and teacher most noted for her work with nematodes and ticks.

Jane Brotherton Walker was a leading 20th century expert in the field of tick taxonomy, particularly in Africa.

Argas africolumbae , ' is a small soft-bodied tick that is found primarily on chickens and birds including the pale crag martin.

Makram Nasri Kaiser (1930–1996) was a medical and veterinary acarologist who was the world's leading authority on ticks of the genus Hyalomma.

Elizabeth Nesta Marks Australian entomologist

Elizabeth Nesta "Pat" Marks was an Australian entomologist who described 38 new mosquito species, as well as new species of fruit flies, bugs, cockroaches and ticks. She had a PhD in insect physiology from the University of Cambridge and was a member of the Royal Entomological Society of London.

Haemaphysalis hystricis, the East Asian mountain haemaphysalid, is a hard-bodied tick of the genus Haemaphysalis. It is found in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Myanmar, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Taiwan and Thailand. It is an obligate ectoparasite of mammals. It is a potential vector of Kyasanur Forest disease virus, Coxiella sp., Ehrlichia sp., and Rickettsia japonica. In 2007, an unknown trypanosoma species known as Trypanosoma KG1 isolate was isolated from naturally infected H. hystricis ticks.

<i>Rhipicephalus pulchellus</i> Species of tick

The zebra tick or yellow back tick is a species of hard tick. It is common in the Horn of Africa, with a habitat of the Rift Valley and eastward. It feeds upon a wide variety of species, including livestock, wild mammals, and humans, and can be a vector for various pathogens. The adult male has a distinctive black and ivory ornamentation on its scutum.

Maria Vladimirovna Pospelova-Shtrom was a 20th century parasitologist best known for her work delineating the biology and public health importance of ticks in western Asia and eastern Europe, contributing to the reduction of the incidence of tick-borne diseases, especially tick-borne relapsing fever.

Haemaphysalis pospelovashtromae, Pospelova-Shtrom’s USSR mountain haemaphysalid, is an ixodid tick native to Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and the Republic of Georgia that parasitizes cattle and goats. The species epithet honors parasitologist Dr. Maria V. Pospelova-Shtrom.

Amblyomma albopictum is a species of tropical hard ticks. It is typically found parasitizing Cyclura nubila, Chilabothrus angulifer, Cubophis cantherigerus, Leiocephalus carinatus, and less commonly the Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine. The species has been found in Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, and has also been reported but not confirmed in Brazil. The tick was described by Louis Georges Neumann in 1899.

References

  1. ↑ Maser, Chris (2008). "Harry and Me".
  2. ↑ James E. Keirans (1986). "Harry Hoogstraal (1917–1986)". Journal of Medical Entomology . 23 (4): 342–343. doi:10.1093/jmedent/23.4.342.
  3. ↑ Hoogstraal Award
  4. ↑ James E. Keirans (1987). "Harry Hoogstraal (1917-1986): a bibliography". Journal of Medical Entomology . 24 (2): 121–140. doi:10.1093/jmedent/24.2.121. PMID   3295240.
  5. ↑ Terry L. Carpenter, Lisa L. O'Brien & Richard G. Robbins (2007). "Supplement to the 1987 bibliography of publications of Harry Hoogstraal (1917-1986)". Systematic & Applied Acarology . 12: 85–86. doi:10.11158/saa.12.1.11. S2CID   85596819.
  6. ↑ Robbins, Richard G.; Robbins, Elissa M. (2003). An indexed, annotated bibliography of the Chinese- and Japanese-language papers on ticks and tick-borne diseases translated under the editorship of the late Harry Hoogstraal (1917–1986) (PDF). Systematic & Applied Acarology Special Publications. pp. 17, 1–12.
  7. ↑ Robbins, Richard G.; Robbins, Elissa M. (2004). "An indexed, annotated bibliography of the German-language papers on ticks and tick-borne diseases translated under the editorship of the late Harry Hoogstraal (1917–1986)" (PDF). Systematic & Applied Acarology Special Publications. pp. 19, 1–14.
  8. ↑ Robbins, Richard G.; Lazukina, Irina; Apanaskevich, Dmitry A.; Carpenter, Terry L. (2014). An annotated list of source publication citations for Russian-language papers on ticks and tick-borne diseases translated under the direction of Harry Hoogstraal, ca. 1967–1986 (PDF). Systematic & Applied Acarology . p. 19(1): 1–43.
  9. ↑ James H. Oliver, Jr. & James E. Keirans (2000). "Dedication to Harry Hoogstraal 1917-1986". Journal of Parasitology . 86 (5): 897–898. doi:10.1645/0022-3395(2000)086[0897:DTHH]2.0.CO;2. PMID   11128507.
  10. ↑ Carpenter, Terry L.; Robbins, Richard G. (2012). An annotated list of encomia honoring Harry Hoogstraal (1917–1986) (PDF). Systematic & Applied Acarology. p. 17(4): 357–367 (preview accessible).
  11. ↑ "Smithsonian Institution Archives: Record Unit 7454, Harry Hoogstraal Papers, circa 1940-1986 (Revised: December 22, 2008)".
  12. ↑ William E. Collins (1976). "Fifty years of American parasitology: some fulgent personalities in arthropodology". Journal of Parasitology . 62 (4): 504–509. PMID   784934. Only 76 patronyms have been documented, but they cover a remarkable 11 taxonomic classes of organisms (Carpenter, Terry L.; Robbins, Richard G. (2010). Patronyms honoring Harry Hoogstraal (1917–1986). Systematic & Applied Acarology. p. 15: 187–194.)
  13. ↑ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN   978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Hoogstraal", p. 126).
  14. ↑ Mattila, J. T., N. Y. Burkhardt, H. J. Hutcheson, U. G. Munderloh, and T. J. Kurtti. 2007. Isolation of cell lines and a rickettsial endosymbiont from the soft tick Carios capensis (Neumann) (Acari: Argasidae: Ornithodorinae). Journal of Medical Entomology 44:1091–1101. "We propose that the isolate RCCE3 be named Candidatus Rickettsia hoogstraalii in honor of Harry Hoogstraal who contributed so much to our knowledge of ticks."
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