The Biology of Parasites

1. General Aspects of Parasite Biology
1.1 Introduction to Parasitology and Its Terminology
1.2 What Is Unique About Parasites?
1.3 The Impact of Parasites on Host Individuals and Host Populations
1.4 Parasite-Host Coevolution
1.5 Influence of Parasites on Mate Choice
1.6 Immunobiology of Parasites
1.7 How Parasites Alter Their Hosts
 
2 Biology of Parasitic Protozoa
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Metamonada
2.3 Parabasala
2.4 Amoebaozoa
2.5 Euglenozoa (Trypanosoma, Leishmania)
2.6 Alveolata (Apicomplexa, Ciliophora)
 
3 Parasitis Worms
3.1 Platyhelminths (Trematodes, Cestodes)
3.2 Acanthocephala
3.3 Nematoda (Dorylaimea, Chromadorea)
 
4 Arthropods
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Acari - Mites and Ticks
4.3 Crustacea
4.4 Insecta (Phthiraptera, Heteroptera, Siphonaptera, Diptera)
 
Answers to Questions
Alphabetical Index

Richard Lucius heads the department of Molecular Parasitology at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin (Germany). After his studies of Biology, he worked on cattle parasites in West Africa, then focused on molecular parasitology in Heidelberg and Harvard and became professor of parasitology at the Universität Hohenheim. His work concentrates on the interaction between parasites and their host's immune system. He is also director of the Center for Infection Biology and Immunology at the Humboldt-Universität.

Brigitte Frank is emeritus Professor for Parasitology at Universität Hohenheim (Germany). She studied biology in Hamburg and Tübingen. For eight years she worked at the ornithological station in Wilhelmshaven on helminths of shore birds and the elucidation of their life cycles. Since the 1990s, she has studied the life cycles of Dicrocoelium dendriticum and other trematodes as well as of cestodes of the genus Mesocestoides and Taenia. She has also worked on the biology of lung mites and other arthropod mammalian parasites.

Richard Grencis is Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester. His research has focused on immune responses to parasites, especially intestinal nematodes. . He has taught parasitology to undergraduate and postgraduate students for over 20 years, and was awarded the Wright Medal from the British Society for Parasitology for his outstanding contribution to Parasitology. He serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Parasite Immunology.

Boris Striepen is Professor of Parasitology at the University of Georgia, where he teaches modern parasitology to students of biology and medicine. The University of Georgia houses one of the largest communities of parasitologists in the USA. He is at the same time director of the internationally renowned course "Biology of Parasitism" which is held every year at the Marine Biology Institute in Woods Hole, MA. His lab is focused on the cell biology of apicomplexan parasites, where he contributes to the