In several months time I will begin an open piece of research
coursework for my Biology A Level. I have been fascinated by parasites
for a long time, especially the interaction between them and their
host. There are numerous cases of parasites being able to affect their
hosts behaviour and I hope to be able to be able to investigate a
particular host and parasite and see if there are any behaviour
changes. Before I can even think about how to do this I need a
parasite and host to study and I'm hoping someone here will be able to
help me.
For a start the host must be an insect(I wouldn't be allowed to
perform an experiment, especially if it involved dissection, on
anything else)and this insect would need to be easily attainable, that
is to say common in South East England. Secondly the insect should be
an intermediate host with the parasite moving on to a bird or other
predator as behaviourial differences leading to this would be easiest
for someone without a deep knowledge of the insects behaviour to spot.
Lastly I would need to be able to identify whether a particular insect
is infected with only a small light microscope.
It is easily possible that such a parasite won't exist but if you
happen to know of any please reply here or email me at
kangaroo_farm at hotmail.com. I'd also like to hear from you if you have
any advice that might be relevant to my proposed investigation.
Thankyou.
