Integumental disease in invertebrates.

The necessarily truncated discussion of integumental neoplasia in invertebrates, given the lack of investigation of such lesions involving individual animals, shows how invertebrate veterinary medicine has a long way to go before reaching the levels of diagnosis and therapeutics of vertebrate exotic species. Nevertheless, the importance of a disease such as varoosis in a species such as the honey bee, which has a massive influence through pollination quite beyond its relevance as a honey producer, shows the importance of never excluding invertebrates from discussion of disease in exotic species. It is therefore commendable that this issue of the Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice seeks wherever possible to include invertebrates in its discussion.