Adult black fly (Simulium yahense) with (Onchocerca volvulus) emerging from the insect's antenna. The parasite is responsible for the disease known as River Blindness in Africa. Sample was chemically fixed and critical point dried, then observed using conventional scanning electron microscopy. Magnified 100X.

Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question, but by their way of life. This means it forms a synthesis of other disciplines, and draws on techniques from fields such as cell biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, evolution and ecology. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (900x657, 116 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Black Fly ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (900x657, 116 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Black Fly ... Subfamilies Parasimuliinae Simuliinae Genera Araucnephia Araucnephioides Archicnephia Austrosimulium Baisomyia Cnephia Cnesia Cnesiamima Crozetia Ectemnia Gigantodax Greniera Gydarina Gymnopais Kovalevimyia Levitinia Lutzsimulium Mayacnephia Metacnephia Paracnephia Parasimulium Paraustrosimulium Pedrowygomyia Prosimulium Simuliites Simulimima Simulium Stegopterna Sulcicnephia Tlalocomyia Twinnia A black fly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat or white socks) is any... Onchocerciasis or river blindness is the worlds second leading infectious cause of blindness. ... A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ... This is a list of biology disciplines. ... Cell biology (also called cellular biology or formerly cytology, from the Greek kytos, container) is an academic discipline that studies cells. ... Map of the human X chromosome (from the NCBI website). ... Wöhler observes the synthesis of urea. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. ... This article is about the general scientific term. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... For the journal, see Ecology (journal). ...

The parasitic mode of life is the most common on the planet^{[citation needed]}, with representatives from all major taxa, from the simplest unicellular organisms to complex vertebrates. Every free-living species has its own unique species of parasite^{[citation needed]}, so the number of parasitic species greatly exceeds the number of free living species. A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ... A taxon (plural taxa) is an element of a taxonomy, e. ... Species Plasmodium accipiteris Plasmodium achiotense Plasmodium achromaticum Plasmodium acuminatum Plasmodium adunyinkai Plasmodium aegyptensis Plasmodium aeuminatum Plasmodium agamae Plasmodium alloelongatum Plasmodium anasum Plasmodium anomaluri Plasmodium arachniformis Plasmodium ashfordi Plasmodium atheruri Plasmodium aurulentum Plasmodium australis Plasmodium attenuatum Plasmodium azurophilum Plasmodium balli Plasmodium bambusicolai Plasmodium basilisci Plasmodium beebei Plasmodium beltrani Plasmodium berghei Plasmodium... ‎The candirú or canero or toothpick fish is the common name for freshwater fish of a number of genera in the in the group commonly called the catfish. ...

Fields

The study of these diverse organisms means that the subject is often broken up into simpler, more focused units, which use common techniques, even if they are not studying the same organisms or diseases. Much research in parasitology falls somewhere between two or more of these definitions. In general, the study of prokaryotes fall under the field of bacteriology rather than parasitology. Domains and Kingdoms Nanobes Acytota Cytota Bacteria Neomura Archaea Eukaryota Bikonta Apusozoa Rhizaria Excavata Archaeplastida Rhodophyta Glaucophyta Plantae Heterokontophyta Haptophyta Cryptophyta Alveolata Unikonta Amoebozoa Opisthokonta Choanozoa Fungi Animalia An ericoid mycorrhizal fungus Life on Earth redirects here. ... Prokaryotic bacteria cell structure Prokaryotes (IPA: //) are a group of organisms that lack a cell nucleus (= karyon), or any other membrane-bound organelles. ... Microbiology (in Greek micron = small and biologia = studying life) is the study of microorganisms, including unicellular (single-celled) eukaryotes and prokaryotes, fungi, and viruses. ...

Medical parasitology

One of the largest fields in parasitology, medical parasitology is the study of those parasites which infect humans. These include organisms such as:

• Plasmodium spp., the unicellular organism which causes malaria. Four different subtypes of malaria are Pl.falciparum,Pl.malariae, Pl.vivax & Pl.ovale.
• Leishmania donovani, the unicellular organism which causes leishmaniasis
• multicellular organisms such as Schistosoma spp., Wuchereria bancrofti and Necator americanus

Medical parasitology can involve drug development, epidimiological studies and study of zoonoses. Species Plasmodium accipiteris Plasmodium achiotense Plasmodium achromaticum Plasmodium acuminatum Plasmodium adunyinkai Plasmodium aegyptensis Plasmodium aeuminatum Plasmodium agamae Plasmodium alloelongatum Plasmodium anasum Plasmodium anomaluri Plasmodium arachniformis Plasmodium ashfordi Plasmodium atheruri Plasmodium aurulentum Plasmodium australis Plasmodium attenuatum Plasmodium azurophilum Plasmodium balli Plasmodium bambusicolai Plasmodium basilisci Plasmodium beebei Plasmodium beltrani Plasmodium berghei Plasmodium... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. ... A genus of trematodes, Schistosoma spp. ... Wuchereria bancrofti (named for O.E.H. Wucheria and Joseph Bancroft), a parasitic filarial nematode, affects over 120 million people, and is spread by mosquitoes. ... Species Species N. americanus and A. duodenale The hookworm is a parasitic nematode worm that lives in the small intestine of its host, which may be a mammal such as a dog, cat, or human. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. ... Zoonosis (pronounced ) is any infectious disease that may be transmitted from other animals, both wild and domestic, to humans or from humans to animals (the latter is sometimes called reverse zoonosis). ...

Veterinary parasitology

Main article: Veterinary parasitology

The study of parasites which cause economic losses in agriculture or aquaculture operations, or which infect companion animals. Examples of species studied are: Veterinary Parasitology is the study of animal parasites. ... Workers harvest catfish from the Delta Pride Catfish farms in Mississippi Aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic organisms. ... PET, see PET. A pet or companion animal is an animal that is kept by humans for companionship and enjoyment, rather than for economic reasons. ...

• Lucilia sericata, a blowfly, which lays eggs on the skins of farm animals. The maggots hatch and burrow into the flesh, distressing the animal and causing economic loss to the farmer
• Otodectes cynotis, the cat ear mite, responsible for Canker.
• Gyrodactylus salaris, a monogenean parasite of salmon, which can wipe out populations which are not resistant.

amphistomes Binomial name (Meigen, 1826) The green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata) is a common blowfly found in most areas of the world. ... Subfamilies Calliphorinae Chrysomyiinae The Blowflies are members of the family Calliphoridae of flies (Diptera). ... Look up maggot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... Ear mites are mites that live in the ears of animals. ... Monogenea (adj. ... For other uses, see Salmon (disambiguation). ...

Quantitative parasitology

Main article: Quantitative parasitology

Parasites exhibit an aggregated distribution among host individuals, thus the majority of parasites live in the minority of hosts. This feature forces parasitologist to use advanced biostatistical methodologies.

Structural parasitology

Main article: Structural parasitology

This is the study of structures of proteins from parasites. Determination of parasitic protein structures may help to better understand how these proteins function differently from homologous proteins in humans. In addition, protein structures may inform the process of drug discovery. In medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which drugs are discovered and/or designed. ...

Parasite ecology

Parasites can provide information about host population ecology. In fisheries biology, for example, parasite communities can be used to distinguish distinct populations of the same fish species co-inhabiting a region. Additionally, parasites possess a variety of specialized traits and life-history strategies that enable them to colonize hosts. Understanding these aspects of parasite ecology, of interest in their own right, can illuminate parasite-avoidance strategies employed by hosts. A fishery (plural: fisheries) is an organized effort by humans to catch fish or other aquatic species, an activity known as fishing. ...

Taxonomy and phylogenetics

The huge diversity within the parasitic animals creates a challenge for biologists to describe and catalogue them. Recent developments in using DNA to identify separate species and to investigate the relationship between groups at various taxonomic scales has been enormously useful to parasitologists, as many parasites are highly degenerate, disguising relationships between species. The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... For the science of classifying living things, see alpha taxonomy. ... The word degeneracy has more than one meaning: In general, degeneracy means reverting to an earlier, simpler, state In mathematics, a limiting case in which a class of object changes its nature so as to belong to another, usually simpler, class. ...

See also

• Important publications in parasitology
• Parasitologists

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External links

• Online lectures in parasitology University of South Carolina
• American Society of Parasitologists
• ARC-NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology
• Australian Society for Parasitology
• British Society for Parasitology
• Chinese Society of Parasitology
• Czech Society for Parasitology
• Hungarian Society of Parasitologists
• Indian Society of Parasitology
• Israel Society for Parasitology, Protozoology and Tropical Diseases
• Japanese Society of Parasitology
• Korean Society for Parasitology
• Nederlandse Vereniging voor Parasitologie
• New Zealand Society for Parasitology
• Scandinavian and Baltic Societies for Parasitology
• e-Parasite - Parasitologists Online Community