Wild hitchhikers
Wild hitchhikers Wild hitchhikers, is the name I have given to a group of organisms that hitchhike on other organisms to serve themselves. These group of organisms are called parasites. Technically speaking, parasites are helminths (flatworms), arthropods (insects), and protists. Broadly speaking, you can include pathogens (bacteria, viruses), and parasitoids (organisms that kill their hosts, e.g. wasps) as well. A major distinction between parasites and other disease causing agents is that Parasites don't usually kill their hosts, but do harm them in some ways (e.g. make them weaker compared to their counterparts). The natural world is swamped with these hitchhikers. Isn’t that scary! While it’s not exactly clear how many parasite species there are in total, some believe that upto 40% of all species could be parasitic. What is clear though that parasitic life style is adopted by creatures in over 15 phyla and over 4 of the 7 kingdoms of life. These include kingdoms plantae, anim