Parasites that manipulate the behaviour of their hosts represent striking examples of adaptation by natural selection. This field of study is now moving beyond its descriptive phase and into more exciting areas where the processes and patterns of such dramatic adaptations can be better understood. This innovative text provides an up-to-date, authoritative, and challenging review of host manipulation by parasites that assesses the current state of developments in the field and lays out a framework for future research. It also promotes a greater integration of behavioral ecology with studies of host manipulation (behavioral ecology has tended to concentrate mainly on behaviour expressed by free living organisms and is far less focused on the role of parasites in shaping behaviour). To help achieve this, the editors adopt a novel approach of having a prominent expert on behavioral ecology (but who does not work directly on parasites) to provide an afterword to each chapter.

By joining phylogenetics and evolutionary ecology, this book explores the patterns of parasite diversity while revealing diversification processes.

Parasitic relationships are among the most common yet complex associations found in nature. This book makes an important contribution toward integrating parasitology into the mainstream of ecological and evolutionary studies. It delves into a number of key questions: to what extent are parasite-host interactions an escalating evolutionary conflict and, conversely, to what extent has evolution modified this process to facilitate co-existence? The first section of the book deals with whole organisms and populations, since the effects of parasitism are dependent on the densities and distributions of hosts and parasites. The next section considers special cases, such as herbivores and plants. The third part is devoted to physiological and immunological aspects, and the book concludes with an overview from the perspectives of ecology, evolution, and physiology. The work will interest ecologists, evolutionary biologists, parasitologists, entomologists, and epidemiologists.

We first discussed the possibility of organizing a symposium on helminth communities in June, 1986. At that time, we were engaged in writing a joint paper on potential structuring mechanisms in helminth communities; we disagreed on a number of issues. We felt the reason for such debate was because the discipline was in a great state of flux, with many new concepts and approaches being introduced with increasing frequency. After consider able discussion about the need, scope and the inevitable limitations of such a symposium, we decided that the time was ripe to bring other ecologists, engaged in similar research, face-to-face. There were many individuals from whom to choose; we selected those who were actively publishing on helminth communities or those who had expertise in areas which we felt were particularly appropriate. We compiled a list of potential participants, contacted them and received unanimous support to organize such a symposium. Our intent was to cover several broad areas, fully recognizing that breadth negates depth (at least with a publisher's limitation on the number of pages). We felt it important to consider patterns amongst different kinds of hosts because this is where we had disagreed among ourselves.

In Parasitism, Claude Combes explores the fascinating adaptations parasites have developed through their intimate interactions with their hosts. He begins with the biology of parasites—their life cycles, habitats, and different types of associations with their hosts. Next he discusses genetic interactions between hosts and parasites, and he ends with a section on the community ecology of parasites and their role in the evolution of their hosts. Throughout the book Combes enlivens his discussion with a wealth of concrete examples of host-parasite interactions.

Parasitology continues to benefit from taking an evolutionary approach to its study. Tree construction, character-mapping, tree-based evolutionary interpretation, and other developments in molecular and morphological phylogenetics have had a profound influence and have shed new light on the very nature of host-parasite relations and their coevolution. Life cycle complexity, parasite ecology and the origins and evolution of parasitism itself are all underpinned by an understanding of phylogeny. The Evolution of Parasitism - A Phylogenetic Perspective aims to bring together a range of articles that exemplifies the phylogenetic approach as applied to various disciplines within parasitology and as applied by parasitologists. Unified by the use of phylogenies, this book tackles a wide variety of parasite-specific biological problems across a diverse range of taxa. - Includes important contributions from leading minds in the field such as Serge Morand, Francisco Ayala and Mark Blaxter, among others - Second in the ISI Parasitology List in 2002 with an Impact Factor of 4.818 - Series encompasses over 35 years of parasitology coverage