The use of ecological terms in parasitology (report of an ad hoc committee of the American Society of Parasitologists)

TLDR: In this paper, an ad hoc committee was established to establish working definitions of a few terms used and misused by parasitological ecologists as a guide for authors submitting papers to The Journal of Parasitology.

Abstract: In February 1981, ASP President Elmer Noble on recommendation from the Editor, Austin Maclnnis, appointed an ad hoc committee \"to establish working definitions of a few terms used and misused by parasitological ecologists\" as a guide for authors submitting papers to The Journal of Parasitology. Appointed to the committee were Drs. Gerald Esch, John Holmes, Armand Kuris, Gerhard Schad, and Leo Margolis (Chairman). As a starting point the committee examined the recommendations (Margolis et al., 1982) prepared by a similar committee established by the Parasitology Section of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. The Canadian Committee concerned itself only with terms required to express concepts related to the number of hosts in a sample infected with a particular species of parasite, and to the number of individuals of a particular parasite in each host in a sample. As noted below the present committee also dealt with several other ecological terms that are not now being used in a consistent manner in parasitological literature. The following are the committee's recommendations, annotated as required: