Preface

The Acanthocephala are generally considered to be a small and rather insignificant group of parasites. They are a minor phylum of interest to specialists; as they rarely, and then accidentally, infect humans or cause significant disease or disorder to their farmed and domestic animals, they receive a cursory treatment even in most parasitology textbooks. Nevertheless, there have been some books devoted exclusively to them, principally Acanthocephala of Domestic and Wild Animals (Petrochenko, 1956, 1958), Vol. V of Systema Helminthum (Yamaguti, 1963), An Ecological Approach to Acanthocephalan Physiology (Crompton, 1970) and Biology of the Acanthocephala (Crompton & Nickol, 1985). The first two of these books are fundamentally systematic in their approach, whereas the latter two are far more biological. Crompton & Nickol's (1985) book does contain some chapters on acanthocephalan ecology, but it was published 20 years ago, and more recent information on their ecology can only be found in the primary scientific literature. Much recent information is being presented at the International Acanthocephalan Workshops, but proceedings of these are not published.