Estimates of the total number of species that inhabit the Earth have increased significantly since Linnaeus's initial catalog of 20,000 species. The best recent estimates suggest that there are Ϸ6 million species. More emphasis has been placed on counts of free-living species than on parasitic species. We rectify this by quantifying the numbers and proportion of parasitic species. We estimate that there are between 75,000 and 300,000 helminth species parasitizing the vertebrates. We have no credible way of estimating how many parasitic protozoa, fungi, bacteria, and viruses exist. We estimate that between 3% and 5% of parasitic helminths are threatened with extinction in the next 50 to 100 years. Because patterns of parasite diversity do not clearly map onto patterns of host diversity, we can make very little prediction about geographical patterns of threat to parasites. If the threats reflect those experienced by avian hosts, then we expect climate change to be a major threat to the relatively small proportion of parasite diversity that lives in the polar and temperate regions, whereas habitat destruction will be the major threat to tropical parasite diversity. Recent studies of food webs suggest that Ϸ75% of the links in food webs involve a parasitic species; these links are vital for regulation of host abundance and potentially for reducing the impact of toxic pollutants. This implies that parasite extinctions may have unforeseen costs that impact the health and abundance of a large number of free-living species.climate change ͉ habitat loss ͉ parasite biodiversity T he year 2008 marks the tercentenary of the birth of Linnaeus, the scientist who first provided a formal classification for biological diversity. In the initial edition of Systema Naturae (1), Linnaeus included a group of species-the Paradoxa-that confounded his classification or whose actual existence he questioned. Pelicans, for example, were placed in Paradoxa because Linnaeus thought they might reflect the over-fervent imaginations of New World explorers. Parasitic worms were also placed in Paradoxa because Linnaeus initially thought that they might be confused, or misplaced, earthworms. In later editions of Systema Naturae, Linnaeus revised his opinions about both pelicans and parasitic worms. We now know much about parasites but still rarely think of them as major components of biodiversity. One primary goal of this article is to revise this misconception and quantify the ubiquity of parasitism as a lifestyle. We then attempt to quantify how many parasite species are threatened with extinction.To quantify the abundance and potential loss rates of parasite biodiversity, we initially need to quantify these measures for their host species. For this we have briefly synthesized the work of May (2, 3), Stork (4), Purvis and Hector (5), and Erwin (6). We then restrict our tally of parasite diversity to parasitic helminths of the vertebrates: trematodes, cestodes, acanthocephalans, and the parasitic nematodes. This tally will synthesize and update a...

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An unappreciated facet of biodiversity is that rich communities and high abundance may foster parasitism. For parasites that sequentially use different host species throughout complex life cycles, parasite diversity and abundance in 'downstream' hosts should logically increase with the diversity and abundance of 'upstream' hosts (which carry the preceding stages of parasites). Surprisingly, this logical assumption has little empirical support, especially regarding metazoan parasites. Few studies have attempted direct tests of this idea and most have lacked the appropriate scale of investigation. In two different studies, we used time-lapse videography to quantify birds at fine spatial scales, and then related bird communities to larval trematode communities in snail populations sampled at the same small spatial scales. Species richness, species heterogeneity and abundance of final host birds were positively correlated with species richness, species heterogeneity and abundance of trematodes in host snails. Such community-level interactions have rarely been demonstrated and have implications for community theory, epidemiological theory and ecosystem management.

Parasites primarily affect food web structure through changes to diversity and complexity. However, compared to free-living species, their life-history traits lead to more complex feeding niches and altered motifs.

In some of the most complex animal societies, individuals exhibit a cooperative division of labour to form castes. The most pronounced types of caste formation involve reproductive and non-reproductive forms that are morphologically distinct. In colonies comprising separate or mobile individuals, this type of caste formation has been recognized only among the arthropods, sea anemones and mole-rats. Here, we document physical and behavioural caste formation in a flatworm. Trematode flatworm parasites undergo repeated clonal reproduction of 'parthenitae' within their molluscan hosts forming colonies. We present experimental and observational data demonstrating specialization among trematode parthenitae to form distinct soldier and reproductive castes. Soldiers do not reproduce, have relatively large mouthparts, and are much smaller and thinner than reproductives. Soldiers are also more active, and are disproportionally common in areas of the host where invasions occur. Further, only soldiers readily and consistently attack heterospecifics and conspecifics from other colonies. The division of labour described here for trematodes is strongly analogous to that characterizing other social systems with a soldier caste. The parallel caste formation in these systems, despite varying reproductive mode and taxonomic affiliation, indicates the general importance of ecological factors in influencing the evolution of social behaviour. Further, the 'recognition of self ' and the defence of the infected host body from invading parasites are comparable to aspects of immune defence. A division of labour is probably widespread among trematodes and trematode species encompass considerable taxonomic, life history and environmental diversity. Trematodes should therefore provide new, fruitful systems to investigate the ecology and evolution of sociality.

Energetics may provide a useful currency for studying the ecology of parasite assemblages within individual hosts. Parasite assemblages may also provide powerful models to study general principles of ecological energetics. Yet there has been little ecological research on parasite-host energetics, probably due to methodological difficulties. However, the scaling relationships of individual metabolic rate with body or cell size and temperature may permit us to tackle the energetics of parasite assemblages in hosts. This article offers the foundations and initial testing of a metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) framework for parasites in hosts. I first provide equations to estimate energetic flux through observed parasite assemblages. I then develop metabolic scaling theory for parasite abundance, energetics, and biomass in individual hosts. In contrast to previous efforts, the theory factors in both host and parasite metabolic scaling, how parasites use host space, and whether energy or space dictates carrying capacity. Empirical tests indicate that host energetic flux can set parasite carrying capacity, which decreases as predicted considering the scaling of host and parasite metabolic rates. The theory and results also highlight that the phenomenon of "energetic equivalence" is not an assumption of MTE but a possible outcome contingent on how species partition resources. Hence, applying MTE to parasites can lend mechanistic, quantitative, predictive insight into the nature of parasitism and can inform general ecological theory.

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