An obligate parasite is a parasitic organism that cannot complete its life cycle without exploiting a suitable host. If an obligate parasite cannot obtain a host it will fail to reproduce. Obligate parasites have evolved a variety of parasitic strategies to exploit their hosts. It might be an external parasite such as a tick, an internal parasite, such as a fluke, or an intracellular parasite, such as Plasmodium. Other types of obligate parasitism include obligate brood parasites, such as the cowbird and cuckoo, which require the nests and parental care of other passerines in order for their young to fledge.
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“Creation destroys as it goes, throws down one tree for the rise of another. But ideal mankind would abolish death, multiply itself million upon million, rear up city upon city, save every parasite alive, until the accumulation of mere existence is swollen to a horror.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)