If it kills the host, it’s not a very successful parasite, or it’s a parasitoid as only one other commenter has picked up. It’s not in parasites’ interest to kill their hosts, it usually happens when they infect a non-preferred host and the system responds differently, like the pork tapeworm Taenia solium which doesn’t kill pigs but can be lethal in humans.
Nope. Evolution doesn’t really work like that. A ‘successful’ organism simply needs to have offspring capable of producing more offspring. In the case of a parasite, it just needs to keep the host alive long enough to infect another host. Anything more than that and you start running into quality vs quantity issues. A longer living, self limiting parasite isn’t going to reproduce as fast (as size longevity goes up, reproductive rates generally go down)
A fast acting, highly transmissible parasite is generally going to outcompete slower parasites.
If it kills the host, it’s not a very successful parasite, or it’s a parasitoid as only one other commenter has picked up. It’s not in parasites’ interest to kill their hosts, it usually happens when they infect a non-preferred host and the system responds differently, like the pork tapeworm Taenia solium which doesn’t kill pigs but can be lethal in humans.
A superior parasite would keep the host alive for hundreds of years past it’s normal lifespan, while ensuring that nothing of the host survives.
Nope. Evolution doesn’t really work like that. A ‘successful’ organism simply needs to have offspring capable of producing more offspring. In the case of a parasite, it just needs to keep the host alive long enough to infect another host. Anything more than that and you start running into quality vs quantity issues. A longer living, self limiting parasite isn’t going to reproduce as fast (as size longevity goes up, reproductive rates generally go down)
A fast acting, highly transmissible parasite is generally going to outcompete slower parasites.