title: A life cycle database for parasitic acanthocephalans, cestodes, and nematodes.
abstract: Parasitologists have worked out many complex life cycles over the last ~150 yr, yet there have been few efforts to synthesize this information to facilitate comparisons among taxa. Most existing host-parasite databases focus on particular host taxa, do not distinguish final from intermediate hosts, and lack parasite life-history information. We summarized the known life cycles of trophically transmitted parasitic acanthocephalans, cestodes, and nematodes. For 973 parasite species, we gathered information from the literature on the hosts infected at each stage of the parasite life cycle (8,510 host-parasite species associations), what parasite stage is in each host, and whether parasites need to infect certain hosts to complete the life cycle. We also collected life-history data for these parasites at each life cycle stage, including 2,313 development time measurements and 7,660 body size measurements. The result is the most comprehensive data summary available for these parasite taxa. In addition to identifying gaps in our knowledge of parasite life cycles, these data can be used to test hypotheses about life cycle evolution, host specificity, parasite life-history strategies, and the roles of parasites in food webs.
authors.affiliation: Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Benesh
authors.affiliation: Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA.|Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey at Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Lafferty
authors.affiliation: Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA.|Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Armand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuris
mesh_terms: D000049:Acanthocephala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002589:Cestoda / Q000502:physiology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D009348:Nematoda / Q000502:physiology*; D010271:Parasites / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: body size; comparative analysis; complex life cycle; food web; helminth; life history; niche shift; ontogeny; predator-prey interactions; trophic transmission