Parasite biodiversity revisited: frontiers and constraints

Although parasites are widely touted as representing a large fraction of the Earth's total biodiversity, several questions remain about the magnitude of parasite diversity, our ability to discover it all and how it varies among host taxa or areas of the world. This review addresses four topical issues about parasite diversity. First, we cannot currently estimate how many parasite species there are on Earth with any accuracy, either in relative or absolute terms. Species discovery rates show no sign of slowing down and cryptic parasite species complicate matters further, rendering extrapolation methods useless. Further, expert opinion, which is also used as a means to estimate parasite diversity, is shown here to be prone to serious biases. Second, it seems likely that we may soon not have enough parasite taxonomists to keep up with the description of new species, as taxonomic expertise appears to be limited to a few individuals in the latter stages of their career. Third, we have made great strides toward explaining variation in parasite species richness among host species, by identifying basic host properties that are universal predictors of parasite richness, whatever the type of hosts or parasites. Fourth, in a geographical context, the main driver of variation in parasite species richness across different areas is simply local host species richness; as a consequence, patterns in the spatial variation of parasite species richness tend to match those already well-documented for free-living species. The real value of obtaining good estimates of global parasite diversity is questionable. Instead, our efforts should be focused on ensuring that we maintain sufficient taxonomic resources to keep up with species discovery, and apply what we know of the variation in parasite species richness among host species or across geographical areas to contribute to areas of concern in the ecology of health and in conservation biology.