Data presented in the paper "Consumer and host body size effects on the removal of trematode cercariae by ambient communities"

Research objective: Parasite transmission can be altered via the removal of parasites by the ambient communities in which parasite–host interactions take place. However, the mechanisms driving parasite removal remain poorly understood. Using marine trematode cercariae as a model system, we investigated the effects of consumer and host body size on parasite removal rates. In laboratory experiments, the cercarial removal rates of five size categories of consumers (shrimps, crabs, oysters) or hosts (cockles) were determined. In addition, a sixth treatment without consumers or hosts served as a control to account for potential losses of cercariae due other factors and to test for the presence of an overall removal effect (control vs. size treatments).For more detail see publication.