Talk:Parasitism

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Date	Process	Result
February 15, 2018	Good article nominee	Not listed
April 17, 2018	Good article nominee	Listed

Current status: Good article

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Possible incorrect information under Hyperparasitism

The source cited for the statement 'in oak gall systems, there can be up to five levels of parasitism' does not appear to support this claim. The longest chain of hyperparasitism depicted in the source is in the diagram on page 240, and has four levels (Biorhiza, Olynx, Torymus, and then several possible fourth levels). BlueWyrm (talk) 00:35, 13 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If the source gives 4 levels, then change the text to four instead of five. Seems like a reasonable and appropriate edit. Dyanega (talk) 01:12, 13 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

there is a copy of the introduction in "basic concepts"

the "basic concepts" section is basically just the introduction again... i was gonna fix this myself but im not sure what should stay - theyre slightly different - but the repetition of so much is clearly superfluous. 58.178.144.84 (talk) 10:37, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The lead is a summary of the cited text. It Lways repeats the key points of an article. Chiswick Chap (talk) 11:59, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Contradictions within the opening paragraph

The opening sentence states: "Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life."

Then, "The entomologist E. O. Wilson characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one".

Then, "Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes."

For mosquitos or vampire bats, which one would tend to think of parasites, they do not satisfy the first sentence's s criteria of "living on or inside another organism", as they do not live on or inside another organism. Bats live in caves, for example, while mosquitos live wherever they live, which is not on or inside another organism. If Wilson's characterisation of "predators that eat prey in units of less than one" is an alternative definition it ought to be stated more clearly that it is. 115.64.244.36 (talk) 19:32, 15 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks for discussing. Yes, mosquitoes and vampire bats are only with their hosts part-time. Lawyers have a saying "Hard cases make bad law", i.e. you won't come to a good definition by trying to wrap your wording around every difficult case. Sure, mosquitoes only feed on your blood for part of the 24 hours. They still make their living by doing that. The purpose of the lead section is to summarize the article briefly and simply, leaving out all the hard stuff, especially in the first paragraph, which is there to give beginners a quick idea of the domain. The two claims you mention are actually cited to two famous and extremely experienced biologists, Robert Poulin and E. O. Wilson. They deliberately put things simply to give people an initial idea of the domain. Here, the rest of the lead, and the rest of the article, go into much more detail, full of interesting and reliably-cited complexity. That's the way it should be. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 20:15, 15 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]