Local and regional influences on patterns of parasite species richness of central European fishes

Local, regional and global influences on the patterns of parasite species r ichness of 39 freshwater fish species from Central Europe were investigated . Host local abundance and host occurrence were considered respectively as local and regional factors, while host geographical range in longitude and latitude was considered as a global factor. Influences of size, ecology and behavior of hosts were also included in a comparative analysis using the i ndependent contrasts method. We considered host habitat, host diet, host sh oaling behavior and mobility. We found a positive relationship between loca l occurrence of fish and global range of their distribution. We confirmed p revious findings showing the importance of host behavior and ecology on the variability of parasite species richness. Second, we showed how a global p attern, such as host geographical range, may affect the variability in para site species richness through its effects on local abundance and distributi on of hosts. A negative relationship between endoparasite species richness and host longitudinal range was found. This suggests that fish with eastern distribution live in the boundary of their distribution in Central Europe far from their center of distribution, which should also be characterized b y a higher diversity of parasites.