Some Aspects of the Geographical Distribution of Parasites

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Abstract
The present distribution of certain parasites may reveal information on the immediate and the distant past of both hosts and parasites. Such information should correlate with data from other fields of knowledge. Recent evidence that Japanese came to Ecuador about 3000 B.C. and Southeastern Asians about 200 B.C. makes possible the early introduction of the hookworms Ancylostoma and Necator in the order postulated by Soper in 1927. The great differences in endemicity of marine fishes in oceanic islands in different oceans are also shown by trematode parasites of these fishes. The trematodes of marine fishes of South Australia are remarkably distinct. Of 165 species from marine fishes of tropical (northern) Australia, 30 occur elsewhere, with greatest affinities to New Caledonia, Japan, Red Sea, and the Caribbean. Dispersal to the Caribbean must have occurred via the Tethys Sea millions of years ago.