Predator-prey interactions between ectoparasites.
Vertebrates represent a resource frequently exploited by ectoparasites. But the ectoporosites themselves also represent a resource that can be exploited by specialized predators. Some o f these predators have been classified as ectoparasites, but in some cases the vertebrate blood in their crops comes from their blood-sucking prey. In fact, as Lance Durden explains, the assemblage o f arthropods that inhabit the vertebrate skin surface, or pelage, seems to show a complete spectrum of adaptations from predators to facultative and obligate blood-suckers, together with those feeding on other materials in this special habitat. The dynamics of their interactions are further complicated by responses of the host to the arthropods, and much further study is needed before the role o f predators in controlling ectoparasites can be clarified.
Durden
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Lance Durden is at the Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.