Diverse Perspectives on Parasite Behavioural Ecology

Parasite Behavioural Ecology 16

in a Field of Diverse

Perspectives

E.E. Lewis,

1

J.F. Campbell

2

and M.V.K. Sukhdeo

3

(^1) Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA;^2 Grain Marketing and
Production Research Center, USDA-ARS, 1515 College
Avenue, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA;^3 Department of Ecology,
Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University,
14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Theoretical approaches to behavioural ecology have generally provided
the frameworks within which we ask questions about animal behaviour.
These questions are usually addressed in terms of causation, develop-
ment, function and evolution (Tinbergen, 1963). However, traditional
studies of animal behaviour, including most of the early studies of
parasite behaviour, emphasized descriptive approaches that focused on
proximate causation. Parasite behavioural ecology continues to have a
strong emphasis on questions related to proximate causation, but, like
behavioural ecology in general, is moving towards a more comprehensive
approach that takes into account the linkage between proximate and
ultimate questions about behaviour (Krebs and Davies, 1997). Our goal
in this book has been to emphasize this linkage with a series of chapters
that addresses different aspects of parasite–host interactions, from the
parasite’s point of view.
Parasites infect essentially all multicellular organisms and, as an
ecological guild, represent a large proportion of the diversity of life.
Despite their ubiquitous distribution and importance in shaping eco-
systems, parasites have received a level of attention by biologists that
is disproportionately small relative to their significance. This may be
because parasites live in a world that is very different from the world that
humans normally perceive (Price, 1980; Sukhdeo and Sukhdeo, 2002).
Parasites tend to be small organisms with life histories that are not very
pleasant to human sensibilities. Indeed, most of the research on parasites
has been undertaken from the perspective of the impact parasites have on
their hosts, especially in relation to human and veterinary pathogenesis.
The importance of parasites has also been underappreciated, because of
CABInternational2002.The Behavioural Ecology of Parasites
(eds E.E. Lewis, J.F. Campbell and M.V.K. Sukhdeo) 337