Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Examples include: Acanthocephala; Ascariasis (roundworms) Cestoda (tapeworms) including: Taenia saginata (human beef tapeworm), Taenia solium (human pork tapeworm), Diphyllobothrium latum (fish tapeworm) and Echinococcosis (hydatid tapeworm) Clonorchis sinensis (the Chinese liver fluke) Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm) Enterobius ...
Parasitism is a major aspect of evolutionary ecology; for example, almost all free-living animals are host to at least one species of parasite. Vertebrates, the best-studied group, are hosts to between 75,000 and 300,000 species of helminths and an uncounted number of parasitic microorganisms.
The black rat is a reservoir host for bubonic plague.The rat fleas that infest the rats are vectors for the disease.. In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; [1] whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist guest ().
Parasites can provide information about host population ecology. In fisheries biology, for example, parasite communities can be used to distinguish distinct populations of the same fish species co-inhabiting a region. Additionally, parasites possess a variety of specialized traits and life-history strategies that enable them to colonize hosts.
European mistletoe is an example of an ectosymbiotic parasite that lives on top of trees and removes nutrients and water.. Ectosymbiosis is a form of symbiotic behavior in which an organism lives on the body surface of another organism (the host), including internal surfaces such as the lining of the digestive tube and the ducts of glands.
Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, [1] [2] meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, such as when food is scarce or when victims are abundant.
Brood parasitism demonstrates close coevolution of host and parasite, for example in some cuckoos. These birds do not make their own nests, but lay their eggs in nests of other species, ejecting or killing the eggs and young of the host and thus having a strong negative impact on the host's reproductive fitness.
The parasite may live outside of the host ectoparasite; for example, a tick. Alternatively, the parasite may live within the host endoparasite ; for example, the fluke . An obligate parasite that does not live directly in or on the host, but rather acts at a distance – for example, a cuckoo which hatches and is raised by non-relatives – is ...