Lizards, ticks and contributions to Australian parasitology: C. Michael Bull (1947-2016)

- Mike Bull was an ecologist who made a major contribution to wildlife parasitology.
- He began this journey studying the parapatric boundary between two ticks on a lizard.
- Developed into one of the longest running studies of ticks on lizards, lasting 35 years.
- Provided new insights into how host behaviour can influence parasite transmission.

Professor C. Michael Bull was a great scientist and mentor, and an Associate Editor of this journal. While his research career spanned the fields of behavioural ecology, conservation biology and herpetology, in this article, we pay tribute to his major contribution to Australian parasitology. Mike authored more than eighty articles on host-parasite ecology, and revealed major insights into the biology and ecology of ticks from his long term study of the parapatric boundary of two tick species (Amblyomma limbatum and Bothriocroton hydrosauri) on the sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa). In this article, we provide an overview of how this research journey developed to become one of the longest-running studies of lizards and their ticks, totalling 35 years of continuous surveys of ticks on lizards, and the insights and knowledge that he generated along that journey.

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