Eichler's rule

Eichler's rule is one of several coevolutionary rules which states that parasites tend to be highly specific to their hosts, and thus it seems reasonable to expect a positive co-variation between the taxonomic richness of hosts and that of their parasites.

When comparing host sister clades we tend to find taxonomically richer parasite fauna on the taxonomically richer group of hosts.

History

A rule to describe the taxonomic relationship between parasites and their hosts was developed in 1942 by Wolfdietrich Eichler (1912–1994), a German authority in zoology and parasitology who served as a professor of parasitology at Leipzig University.[1][2] The principal was later dubbed 'Eichler's rule'. It is one of the first three coevolutionary rules, created in opposition to Heinrich Fahrenholz's anti-Darwinian research into coevolution.[3][4]

Research

As a part of their 2012 study, Vas and his co-authors tested Eichler's rule, and concluded that exceptionally strong correlational evidence supports the positive co-variation between the species richness of avian and mammalian families and the generic richness of their parasitic lice.[5]

In volume nine of Advances in Parasitology, parasitologist W. Grant Inglis posited that, when studying the co-variation between the taxonomic richness of hosts and parasites, it is easier to study parasites than free-living host organisms.[6]

References
  1. Eichler, Wolfdietrich (1966). "Two New Evolutionary Terms for Speciation in Parasitic Animals". Systematic Zoology. 15 (3): 216–218. doi:10.2307/2411393. ISSN 0039-7989.
  2. Eichler, W. (1942). "Die Entfaltungsregel und andere Gesetzmäßigkeiten in den parasitogenetischen Beziehungen der Mallophagen und anderer ständiger Parasiten zu ihren Wirten" (PDF). Zoologischer Anzeiger. 136: 77–83.
  3. Klassen, G. J. (1992). "Coevolution: a history of the macroevolutionary approach to studying host-parasite associations". Journal of Parasitology. 78 (4): 573–587. doi:10.2307/3283532. JSTOR 3283532. PMID 1635016.
  4. Klassen, G. J. (1992). "Coevolution: a history of the macroevolutionary approach to studying host-parasite associations". The Journal of Parasitology. 78 (4): 573–587. doi:10.2307/3283532. ISSN 0022-3395. JSTOR 3283532. PMID 1635016.
  5. Vas, Z.; Csorba, G.; Rozsa, L. (2012). "Evolutionary co-variation of host and parasite diversity – the first test of Eichler's rule using parasitic lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera)" (PDF). Parasitology Research. 111 (1): 393–401. doi:10.1007/s00436-012-2850-9. PMID 22350674. S2CID 14923342.
  6. Advances in Parasitology. Academic Press. 1971-03-31. ISBN 978-0-08-058055-5.
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