Abstract
UNDER the title "Some Rules in Ectoparasitism", Dr. W. Eichler, of Ascherleben, Germany, contributes an interesting paper to The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 12, No. 8 (August 1948). It has long been known that the natural classification of some groups of animals of parasitic habits corresponds with that of their hosts. Since Fahrenholz was one of the chief protagonists of this rule (in regard to the Anoplura in particular), the author has named this general principle "Fahren-holz's Rule". It applies, for example, to certain groups of ectoparasites and their hosts. Fahrenholz argued that the ancestors of extant parasites must have been parasites of their original ancestral hosts, evolution of host and parasite consequently having gone on side by side. The conclusions drawn from the classification and relationships of many groups of parasites enable light to be thrown on the natural relationships of their hosts—even in cases where the latter show very divergent features from other members of their group.
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Correlation of Evolution of Host and Ectoparasite. Nature 163, 698–699 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163698b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163698b0