Acanthocephalans, or spiny-headed worms, are endoparasites found in almost all marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems. They infect a huge range of definitive and intermediate hosts during their life cycles, including both vertebrates and arthropods. This volume, first published in 2006, examines the distribution and abundance of the Acanthocephala, and uses this ecological information to reveal the group's enormous survival success. It discusses how the acanthocephalans have evolved differently to all other groups of parasites, and represent a distinct and alternative pathway of parasite evolution and host parasite-interactions. Written for graduate students and researchers in parasitology, ecology and zoology or anyone interested in reading about parasite ecology and evolution.
• Using a unique ecological approach, the evolution of the acanthocephala is detailed • Challenges the paradigms of biodiversity, suggesting that it is not a pre-condition for success • Provides a unique and invaluable source of reference
Contents
Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Life cycles and transmission; 3. Biogeography and distribution; 4. Specificity; 5. Host–parasite interactions; 6. Population dynamics; 7. Community dynamics; 8. Introductions and extinctions; 9. Relations to ecosystem changes; 10. Conclusions; References; Index.
Review
'The book has been produced with care, both by the author and the publisher, and is enjoyable to read … I can honestly recommend this book as a good read, more so because its raison d'être was not to promote yet another human pathogen but to express the intrinsically fascinating biology shown by this small, but not unassuming, group of parasites. In this it succeeds admirably.' Biologist
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