BIOL2001A

Animals: Form and

Function

Animals and
Society:
Parasites
How was midterm 1?
Today’s learning objectives
By the end of today’s class, you will be able to:

• Define what is, and is not, a parasite.

• Compare and contrast parasitism with symbiosis
and commensalism.
• Describe and compare the life cycles of some
example parasites and their effects on their hosts.
 Trigger warning!
This lecture contains parasitic infections and you
might find these images and videos disturbing.

You have been warned!

Symbiosis
• In a symbiotic relationship, two organisms have a
close relationship (live together).
• The symbiont always benefits from this
relationship.

• If the host also benefits, this is called mutualism

• If the host is unaffected, this is called
commensalism
• If the host is negatively affected, this is called
parasitism.
Parasites
• Parasitism defines a relationship between two
organisms where one (the parasite) benefits at
the expense of the other (the host).

General rules about parasites

• Parasites live in or on a single host per life stage
• Parasites typically do not kill their host
• Parasites do reduce the fitness of their hosts
Parasites

• Endoparasites live inside their host

• E.g. tapeworm, botfly Pinworm (rectal parasite)

• Ectoparasites live on the external

surface of their host.
• E.g. fleas, lice
Head louse

What is a botfly?
https://www.pbs.org/video/giving-birth-botfly-p7jcql/
(warning, this video might be disturbing…)
 Is this a parasite? Why or why not?

Parasite
Parasite benefits
Host suffers
One host per life stage

Tapeworm
Phylum: Platyhelminthes, Class: Cestoda
Live in the digestive system of vertebrates
 Is this a parasite? Why, or why not?

Not a parasite – more than

one victim per life stage
and kill their victims. Lions
are predators.

Lion
Phylum: Chordata, Class: Mammalia
Feed on other large vertebrates
 Is this a parasite? Why or why not?

Not technically a
parasite – Feeds on more
than one host per life
stage. Mosquitos are
usually considered a
“micro-predator”

Mosquito (Aedes aegypti)

Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Insecta
Feeds on vertebrates
 Is this a parasite? Why or why not?

Where is the cost to the host?

Deer tick (Ixodes scapularis)

Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Arachnida
Feeds on vertebrates
 Is this a parasite? Why or why not?

Deer tick (Ixodes scapularis)

Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Arachnida
Feeds on vertebrates
The lifecycle of Ixodes scapularis ticks generally lasts two years. During this time,
they go through four life stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. After the eggs hatch,
the ticks must have a blood meal at every stage to survive. Blacklegged ticks can
feed from mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The ticks need a new host at
each stage of their life https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html
 Is this a parasite? Why or why not?

No! Depends
entirely on male to
reproduce (gain
fitness), so this is
not a parasite.

Anglerfish
Phylum: Chordata, Class: Actinopterigii
Male lives only to find and fuse to female
Do parasites kill the host?
• Parasites typically do not kill their hosts,
but some do require the host to die.

Which ones?
1. Trophically-transmitted parasites move
through trophic levels (positions in a
food web) by encouraging an
intermediate host to be eaten.
2. Parasitoids
Trophically-transmitted parasites

• Definitive host: Host in which the parasite

reaches sexual maturity.

• Intermediate host (vector): Host in which the

parasite completes a necessary portion of its
lifecycle.

• Accidental host: A host that the parasite does not

normally infect. May or may not be able to
complete development.
Trophically-transmitted parasites
e.g. Toxoplasma gondii (single-celled eukaryote)
• Trophically-transmitted parasites need access to
both a definitive and an intermediate host to
complete their life cycle.
Toxoplasma modifies the behavior
of the intermediate host to gain
access to the definitive host.
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=aA-POO8S01Y
Trophically-transmitted parasites
e.g. Toxoplasma gondii (single-celled eukaryote)

Note: I will NOT ask you to

recreate parasite life cycles
on an exam (do not waste
effort on memorizing
them), but you might
encounter questions that
test your understanding of
what an intermediate and
definitive host are, and
your answers are best
supported by giving clear
examples.
Trophically-transmitted parasites
• Trophically-transmitted parasites can
have more than one intermediate host.
• E.g. Dicrocoelium dendriticum (the liver
fluke)
• Phylum: Platyhelminthes, Class: Trematoda
 Ant gets moisture from snail slime trail ingesting cysts

Fluke has “mind control” powers over the ant.

At night they go out and latch onto grass with their mouthparts
https://theoatmeal.com/co
mics/captain_higgins
Parasitoids

http://buzzhootroar.com/parasitoids/

• Parasitoids act like typical parasites early in their development, but

then kill the host during or at the end of their developmental cycle.
• Parasitoids are extremely selective. They only attack a specific life
stage of one or a group of closely related species.
Parasitoids
• There are a wide variety of parasitoid wasp species that lay eggs inside spiders and
insects.
• About 10% of all described insects are parasitoids (~800,000 species)

Cotesia congregata (a parasitoid wasp) Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm)

with emerging larvae of parasitoid wasp

https://youtu.be/sjXf_kCZp50
Parasitoids
• Even parasitoids can have parasitoids! This is called
a hyperparsitoid.

Image from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yneQTGCjA5A

 Why do we care about parasites anyway?
Parasites and the global economy
Richer countries have a lower disease burden. Do
poorer countries get stuck in a poverty cycle?

Less $

Low Health Poor conditions =

= Less work More exposure

DALYs = Disability Adjusted Life-Years

(a measure of infectious disease burden)
Bonds et al. 2009
 Question for your consideration

In the previous slide we discussed one reason

why parasites are important to understand.
• What about parasitoids? Why should we care about them?
• For the next few minutes, search online and try to find one way
parasitoids influence our lives.

• Share what you find with the class!

Next class: Arthropods I