Specialization on Long-lived Hosts: where populations of individuals can specialize in a different manner from other parasites within a long-lived host. This could result in a decrease in coevolution or create different reates of coadaptation in a parasite and host. The problem with this type of specialization is the fact that after an extended period of time of parasite-host interaction the rate of coevolution would be small. This type of specialization could be influenced by population structure of parasite and host and could determine if coevolution is likely and the rate of adaptation of both.
- Example: A parasite can be adapted to an individual host or genetically similar hosts such as a troop of primates or a patch of plants. In this way parasite adaptation can evolve over a period of time through recombination and selection while the host can basically remain the same