The Transmission of Digenetic Trematodes: Style, Elegance, Complexity

Traditionally, the field of parasitology has dealt with eukaryotic animals, to the exclusion of viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc., which is the way it will be approached here. The focus of the present paper will be on certain ecological aspects of the life cycles and life-history strategies employed by the Digenea, a diverse group of platyhelminths that includes some 25,000 species. More specifically, the review will consider the nature of host/parasite interactions within molluscan intermediate hosts and the manner in which these interactions, or lack thereof, function in structuring trematode infracommunities within these molluscan intermediate hosts. Literature in this area suggests that predation/competition may be a significant structuring force for infracommunities in certain marine prosobranchs, but not others, and that temporal/spatial factors may be involved as structuring mechanisms in at least some freshwater pulmonates.