Why not benefit the host instead in some way? Killing the host means the parasite also dies.
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>Why not benefit the host instead in some way? Killing the host means the parasite also dies.
Parasites generally do not kill their target hosts. As you noted, that would swiftly remove them from the gene pool.
Parasites will **absolutely** kill other organisms than their specific host if, by some misfortune, they should end up in/on the other organism. It’s not their natural habitat, after all.
E.g. if a parasite that evolved with all the necessary skillsets to feed off of and simultaneously keep alive a massive half-ton meat tank of a mammal somehow ends up in a cat and also somehow survives then that’s bad news for the cat. There will be a misunderstanding between the parasite and the cat to the detriment of both of them.
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