My research focuses on two groups of parasites: gregarines and tapeworms. Gregarines are single-celled animal-like protozoa which primarily parasitize insects. Tapeworms are multi-cellular animals which, as adults, parasitize the intestines of their vertebrate hosts. Because parasitism is so common much research is still needed to understand the total number of species of parasites. This is especially true in these two host-parasite systems. For example, it is hypothesized that the total number of gregarine species which exists might rival the total number of insect hosts. There are nearly a million insect species, though only about 1,500 species of gregarines are known to science. For tapeworms, the numbers are not quite so dramatic nonetheless much work is needed to understand total diversity. It is estimated that there are about 5,000 known species of tapeworms but upwards of 10,000-15,000 species may exist. Because of these gaps in knowledge about baseline diversity, the premise of my research focuses on