Parasites as biological tags.
Parasites suffer from bad public relations. In The Goodness of Parasitism: A New Hypothesis, Lincicome proclaimed 'Parasitism, one of life's great phenomena, possesses a quality of goodness that has largely been overlooked because man has been so possessed with the disease aspects of this association'. It has been twenty years since Lincicome led the call for parasites' acceptance as admirable organisms, apparently without much success. Here, Mike Moser offers a brief reminder of the virtues of parasites and the benefits of being parasitized.
Moser
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University of California-Santa Cruz, Long Marine Laboratory, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA.