Host fecundity reduction: a strategy for damage limitation?

Host fecundity reduction is a life-history trait that is commonly exhibited in parasitic associations. It is particularly prevalent in female inverteb rate hosts that invest heavily in egg production during a relatively short life span. Here, Hilary Hurd uses examples of parasitized insects and trema tode infections of snails to consider the evolutionary significance of this response to infection. Studies of host egg production and reports of the p hysiological mechanisms underlying reduction of host reproductive success a re used to evaluate the hypotheses that fecundity reduction might be a by-p roduct of infection, or an adaptive strategy on the part of parasite or hos t.