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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 ...
Parasites of animals are highly specialised, each parasite species living on one given animal species, and reproduce at a faster rate than their hosts. Classic examples include interactions between vertebrate hosts and tapeworms, flukes, and those between the malaria-causing Plasmodium species, and fleas. Parasites reduce host fitness by ...
Definitive or primary host – an organism in which the parasite reaches the adult stage and reproduces sexually, if possible. This is the final host. Secondary or intermediate host – an organism that harbors the sexually immature parasite and is required by the parasite to undergo development and complete its life cycle. It often acts as a ...
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.
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 ...
Parasites are able to limit population growth and reproduction of species which may lead to a shift in the balance of an ecosystem. [11] Other ways parasites impact systems are through nutrient cycles. Parasites are able to create imbalances of the elements in a system through the relationship they have with a host and the host's diet. [12]
Human parasites are divided into endoparasites, which cause infection inside the body, and ectoparasites, which cause infection superficially within the skin. The cysts and eggs of endoparasites may be found in feces , which aids in the detection of the parasite in the human host while also providing the means for the parasitic species to exit ...
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.