The Ecology of Host-Parasite Interactions in Aquatic Insects

摘要

The importance of parasites in affecting characteristics at the individual, population, community and ecosystem levels in natural systems has been increasingly recognized and documented. A literature survey of the interactions between parasites and aquatic insects revealed strong taxonomic biases with respect to both hosts and parasites studied. Some relatively speciose and ecologically important groups (e.g. aquatic Coleoptera, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera) were poorly represented while others (e.g. Odo-nata, Culicidae) dominated the literature. Similarly, some groups of aquatic insects appear to be parasitized by relatively few parasite groups, and some parasites were studied from a narrow range of hosts. Studies on the ecological effects of parasites were dominated by those addressing effects on host fitness, but utilized a narrow range of hosts (largely odonates and mosquitoes) and parasites (largely gregarines, microsporidia, nematodes and water mites). Less than 5% of the 551 paperssurveyed addressed population- or community-level effects of parasites. Because all host-parasite interactions take place within the framework of a larger set of species interactions occurring in a community, I discuss examples that address the context-dependent effects of parasites, and their effects at the population and community levels.