Parasite prevalence and host sample size.
Parasite prevalence is a summary statistic familiar to biologists. However, that there is an interspecific relationship between prevalence and sample size (the number of host individuals examined for parasites) is not widely appreciated. In this article, Richard Gregory and Tim Blackburn present some examples of this negative relationship, explain the mechanisms that underlie this pattern and discuss the potential problems this association might create for biological studies.
Gregory
R D
RD
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
Blackburn
T M
TM