Macroparasites: Worms and others.

Abstract

The traditional ecological perception of parasitic helminths is of rather obscure group of 'wormy' creatures which make their living by feeding on excess food in the guts of their hosts. In this chapter, we attempt to redress this balance by showing that the parasitic helminths are a diverse assemblage of natural enemies, which cause a ubiquitous and constant drain on the energetic resources of most free-living organisms. Parasitic helminths may be considered as supremely adapted predators that constantly imposed a slow but steady drain on host resources, and thus significantly influence their host's energetics, behaviour, demography and evolution.