Terrifying or fascinating? UHasselt biologists launch the first-ever beauty contest for parasites
What characteristics of parasites make people shrink, and which ones might make people appreciate them? These are the central questions of the World Archives of Species Perception - Parasite (WASP-P) project at the Centre for Environmental Sciences at UHasselt. This is a sort of beauty contest where the general public can rate 10 species of parasites based on various traits, from beautiful or ugly to harmless or frightening. “We would like to better understand how people perceive parasitic species. Even though at first sight, they may not all look as appealing as a panda, they are an important component of biodiversity. And it's our job as humans to protect these species as well,” say biologists Dr Tiziana Gobbin and Dr Armando Cruz-Laufer.
Parasites
WASP-P is a short online survey where the public sees 10 photos of parasitic species. They then have to rate them based on certain parameters. Do they find the parasite beautiful or ugly, boring or interesting? And do they think the species is important for the ecosystem or not? “There are no correct or wrong answers, what matters is what the respondent feels. Filling out the survey only takes a few minutes but provides us with valuable information about public perception of parasitic species,” says Dr Tiziana Gobbin. “This is the first research into how people view parasites, and the information we gather will help support nature policy and conservation in practice.”
Public perception
Research shows that conservation efforts are more successful when they have the support of the general public. For example, more effort is put into the protection and promotion of more attractive animals than those species that are considered less beautiful. “Therefore, if we want to start conservation programs for parasites, we first need to understand how parasitic species are perceived. Which traits make people appreciate a parasite species, and which ones do not? And that’s what we’re doing with our WASP-P platform,” says Dr Armando Cruz-Laufer.
And protecting parasites is very important, since they are one of the largest groups of organisms on Earth and are crucial to our ecosystems. They regulate populations worldwide, ensuring that species do not become too dominant. Additionally, they are a very important part of biodiversity and a good indicator of the state of an ecosystem. “But the global population of parasites is not doing well. It’s estimated that 30% of all parasites worldwide will be on the brink of extinction by the end of this century. Many parasite species may disappear before they are even discovered and given a name,” according to Dr Tiziana Gobbin. “Therefore, urgent action is needed to better protect wildlife parasites, because ignoring the status of parasites is equivalent to ignoring more than half of all biodiversity.”
Help name the newly discovered species
After filling out the survey, everyone can also help name four newly discovered parasitic species. Recently, UHasselt biologists discovered four new parasitic species that inhabit the gills of a freshwater fish species (family Cichlidae) in rivers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “It is not uncommon to discover parasite species that have never been seen before. What’s special about this discovery is that we found them in fish from a museum collection at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, dating back to the 1940s and 1950s,” says Tiziana Gobbin.
When discovering a new species, scientists must follow several steps. They need to describe all the characteristics of the new species in detail and select specimens that will be stored in natural history collections for future research. Additionally, the species needs a name. This name consists of two parts: the first is the genus name (in this case Cichlidogyrus, because the parasites were found on a fish species from the cichlid family). For the second part of the name, the researchers have the freedom to choose something. The UHasselt researchers have come up with two possible name options for each of the four species. The general public can vote on these options, helping to name the new parasitic species. Voting species names will remain open until May 15th.
Participate in this research via tinyurl.com/wasp-parasite. The platform is available in both English and Dutch, as well as 8 other languages. Prior knowledge of parasites is not required.