Xin Centenary and Progress in Chinese Acarology: an introduction

Abstract

This commemorative volume is dedicated to Prof Xin Jie-Liu (1909–1994)—a pioneer and founder of acarology and several other branches of zoology in China. Prof Xin was born in November 1909. To celebrate the centenary of his birth in November 2009, Dr Zhang Zhi-Qiang and Dr Hong Xiao-Yue organized a special commemorative symposium “Progress in Acarology in China” during the 9th National Congress of Acarology in Nanjing, China (Zhang, 2009). This volume, however, was conceived prior to the symposium and several leading acarologists in China were invited to prepare reviews of research progress in their area of study for this volume. Some of them also presented their reviews during the symposium. After the symposium, several additional chapters were invited and prepared for this volume.