Ecological versus phylogenetic determinants of helminth parasite community richness

Abstract

We examine patterns of community richness among intestinal parasitic helminth communities in fishes, herptiles, birds and mammals with respect to the comparative number of component species in a host population. We show that terrestrial hosts have, on average, fewer component species than aquatic hosts. We also show that the mean number of component species in aquatic hosts increases from fishes through herptiles to birds before declining slightly in mammals. For terrestrial hosts, the mean number of component species increases from herptiles, through birds, reaching a maximum in mammals. We conclude that: (i) habitat of the host is more important in determining community richness than is host phylogeny; (ii) the phenomenon of ‘host capture’ may be largely responsible for increased species richness in some host groups; (iii) aquatic birds harbour the richest intestinal helminth communities; and (iv) as we interpret them, our data refute the time hypothesis, which would predict that fishes as the oldest lifestyle should have the richest helminth communities.