Local adaptation to parasite selective pressure: comparing three congeneric co-occurring hosts.

Local adaptation may optimize an organism's investment in defenses in response to the risk of infection by spatially heterogeneous parasites and other natural enemies. However, local adaptation may be constrained if recruitment is decoupled from selective pressure experienced by the parent generation. We predicted that the ability of three intertidal littorinid snail species to defend against trematode parasites would depend on prior levels of population exposure to parasites and on larval dispersal mode, a proxy for population openness.