CLINICAL MEDICINE

Detailed explanation-1: -Nest parasites Host males guard territories against intruders during the breeding season, creating a patch of reeds as a spawning site or “nest". Females (one or more per site) visit the site to lay eggs, which the male then defends. The parasite’s eggs are smaller and stickier than the host’s.

Detailed explanation-2: -The larvae find and recognise their hosts, in some cases even with species specificity, via complex sequences of behavioural patterns with which they successively respond to various environmental and host cues. There is often a surprisingly high diversity of host-recognition strategies.

Detailed explanation-3: -Brood Parasitism as a Reproductive Strategy Avian brood parasitism, or the laying of one’s eggs in the nest of another individual, is a reproductive strategy whereby parasites foist the cost of rearing their offspring onto another individual, the host (Davies 2000).

Detailed explanation-4: -Parasites May Influence Predation on Their Hosts The potential effect that parasites have on host–predator interactions is also important. Parasites may lower the ability of their hosts to escape predators; infected hosts may swim and react more slowly than healthy hosts, for example.