Description: For most, the mere mention of lice forces an immediate hand to the head and recollection of childhood experiences with nits, medicated shampoos, and traumatic haircuts. But for a certain breed of biologist, lice make for fascinating scientific fodder, especially enlightening in the study of coevolution. In this book, three leading experts on host-parasite relationships demonstrate how the stunning coevolution that occurs between such species in microevolutionary, or ecological, time generates clear footprints in macroevolutionary, or historical, time. By integrating these scales, Coevolution of Life on Hosts offers a comprehensive understanding of the influence of coevolution on the diversity of all life.
Following an introduction to coevolutionary concepts, the authors combine experimental and comparative host-parasite approaches for testing coevolutionary hypotheses to explore the influence of ecological interactions and coadaptation on patterns of diversification and codiversification among interacting species. Ectoparasites--a diverse assemblage of organisms that ranges from herbivorous insects on plants, to monogenean flatworms on fish, and feather lice on birds--are powerful models for the study of coevolution because they are easy to observe, mark, and count. As lice on birds and mammals are permanent parasites that spend their entire lifecycles on the bodies of their hosts, they are ideally suited to generating a synthetic overview of coevolution--and, thereby, offer an exciting framework for integrating the concepts of coadaptation and codiversification.Brief description: Kevin P. Johnson is a principal research scientist with the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is coauthor of The Chewing Lice: World Checklist and Biological Overview. He lives in Champaign, IL.
Review Quotes: "It's a lousy world out there! . . . Parasites and their hosts constitute fascinating examples of ecological and evolutionary interactions, as evidenced by the interest that people as far away from the field as cartoonist Gary Larson pay to the lives of these critters. Hence there is every reason to consider these organisms to be model systems of coevolution. Clayton and his collaborators Bush and Johnson have together with their many students done an impressive job by filling out many of the gaps of knowledge on coevolution, thereby accidentally filling an academic niche in the same way as many ectoparasites squeeze into empty spaces on the host to make their living. . . . This is an exciting book that will direct many students towards the study of lice and other parasites, and thereby spread an interest in coevolution at large--as large as this topic deserves."-- "Trends in Ecology & Evolution"