Parasitic arthropods inflict an enormous burden on human society; they afflict human health and the animals on which we depend. The negative effects of parasitic arthropods are exacerbated by current climate and ecosystem change. Fleas that vectored the pathogen causing bubonic plague wreaked havoc on historic human populations. Mosquitos continue to vector pathogens responsible for malaria and dengue, and ticks vector the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease; these arthropod borne pathogens infect and kill millions of people each year. Arthropod-borne pathogens can also have a significant impact on our livestock, which poses a serious threat to agriculture and food security globally. Entomology collections around the world host valuable information about the diversity and distribution of these arthropod vectors through space and time, yet these data have not been synthesized or made visible to scientists across the many relevant disciplines.

The goal of the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker (TPT) project is to mobilize and digitally capture vector and parasite collections to help build a picture of parasite host-association evolution, distributions, and the ecological interactions of disease vectors which will assist scientists, educators, land managers, and policy makers.