During the Inaugural Meeting of the European Association of Acarol- ogists (EURAAC), held in Amsterdam in 1987, it was decided that the holding of a Symposium at regular intervals should be a major objective. With this in view, it was agreed that Professor Reinhart Schuster, the senior editor, be invited to accept the Presidency of the Association and, arising from that Office, to organize the first Symposium in Austria in 1988. There was strong support for a main theme focused on a particular aspect of acarology. From these discussions there emerged the proposal that emphasis be placed on...