rattus a similar 2-way interaction was highly significant (seasonal cycle*season, F 2, 336 = 7.57, P = 0.001) and the pattern of change was much the same in seasonal cycles 1 and 2, but not in cycle 3, when mean helminth species richness was higher in the dry season compared to the wet season much as in cycle 1 (Figure 2A ).
There were also two marginally significant main effects in R. rattus ; mean helminth species richness was lower at Bangsar compared with Chow Kit (Table 5 , F 1, 336 = 4.03, P = 0.046), and increased with age, but then leveled off in age class 3 ( F 1, 336 = 3.23, P = 0.041, values in age classes 1-3, = 1.18 ± 0.145, 1.69 ± 0.092, 1.53 ± 0.087, respectively).
Nevertheless, there was a significant trend of increasing helminth diversity in R. rattus but not in R. norvegicus , suggesting that helminth community structure in the former was changing over time.