On Fri, 17 Feb 1995, Brian E. Keas wrote:
> What I was trying to do in my definition of a parasite was have a
> definition that clearly and without exception included organisms that
> almost all people would agree to be parasites. Clearly, cows don't fit
> most people's definition of a parasite and thus my definition was made to
> exclude cows and other 'classic' herbivores. It is somewhat a matter of
> scale, but it would be very difficult to imagine an adult tapeworm, for
> example, infecting two (hosts) intestines simultaneously, regardless of
> its size.
What about two tapeworms that are genetically identical? Asexual
reproduction may provide a way for "scaled down" consumers to feed on two
hosts simultaneously.
Derek "Devil's Advocate" Zelmer
