Biodiversity, ecology and evolution of ectoparasites

关于虱子、跳蚤和蜱虫的讨论通常会让人们感到厌恶。然而，寄生虫在动物物种中占很大比例，并且具有相当大的潜力来影响野生动物、家畜和人类的健康和表现。当我开始我的工作时，在加拿大记录的咀嚼虱不到300种，其中许多被错误识别并与不正确的宿主物种相关联。 关于侵染参数的信息很少。 仅在马尼托巴省，我就记录了300多种虱子，并检查了近300种虱子的近7000个个体宿主。 通过研究从野生动物繁殖中心打捞的宿主，我已经编制了一个关于宿主特异性、感染率和感染强度、性别比例和每种虱子的种群结构的数据库。

Discussion about lice, fleas and ticks typically causes people to cringe with disgust. However, parasites constitute a great proportion of animal species, and have considerable potential to impact fitness and performance in wildlife, domestic animals and humans. When I started my work, there were fewer than 300 species of chewing lice recorded in Canada, many of which were misidentified and associated with incorrect host species. There was little information on infestation parameters. I have recorded more than 300 species of lice from Manitoba, alone, and examined nearly 7000 individual hosts of nearly 300 species. By examining hosts salvaged from wildlife rehabiltation centres, I have compiled a database on host specificity, prevalence and intensity of infestation, sex ratios, and population structure for each species of louse.