The effects of host sex on transmission success.

A recent debate in Parasitology Today explored the causes of gender-related differences in parasite infection, examining epidemiological patterns on the one hand, and interactions between host sex hormones and the immune response on the other. In this article, Richard Tinsley focuses on the simplified ecology of a host-parasite system in a desert environment. This enables a clear separation of the factors determining the levels of host invasion (including host behaviour) from those that modulate the survival of established worm burdens (including host physiology).