Host demographic predicts ectoparasite dynamics for a colonial host during pre-hibernation mating

Parasitology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
pp. 1260-1269 ◽  
Author(s):  
QUINN M. R. WEBBER ◽  
ZENON J. CZENZE ◽  
CRAIG K. R. WILLIS

SUMMARYParasite dynamics can be mediated by host behaviours such as sociality, and seasonal changes in aggregation may influence risk of parasite exposure. We used little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) captured during the autumn mating/swarming period to test the hypothesis that seasonal and demographic-based variation in sociality affect ectoparasitism. We predicted that ectoparasitism would: (1) be higher for adult females and young of the year (YOY) than adult males because of female coloniality; (2) increase for adult males throughout swarming because of increasing contact with females; (3) decrease for adult females and YOY throughout swarming because of reduced coloniality and transmission of individual ectoparasites to males; (4) be similar for male and female YOY because vertical transmission from adult females should be similar. Ectoparasitism was lowest for adult males and increased for males during swarming, but some effects of demographic were unexpected. Contrary to our prediction, ectoparasitism increased for adult females throughout swarming and YOY males also hosted fewer ectoparasites compared with adult and YOY females. Interestingly, females in the best body condition had the highest parasite loads. Our results suggest that host energetic constraints associated with future reproduction affect pre-hibernation parasite dynamics in bats.

1975 ◽  
Vol 107 (6) ◽  
pp. 627-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Baker ◽  
George C. Eickwort

AbstractAdult females of Chrysomelobia labidomerae Eickwort lay eggs on the upper surfaces of the hind wings of Labidomera clivicollis (Kirby). The eggs hatch in approximately 7 days and male and female larvae feed at the base of the wings and in the meso–metathoracic crevice and swell to about twice their original length. For about the second half of the approximately 7-day larval stadium, the larvae are inactive (pharate adults) and are usually cemented to the undersurfaces of the elytra. Inactive female larvae are accompanied by adult males that apparently copulate with the newly emerged adult females. The pharate adult is enclosed in a cuticular sac that may represent a calyptostatic nymphal instar. Adult females feed on the beetle’s abdominal terga and sometimes also occur on its venter where they do not feed. Females disperse from host to host when the beetles copulate. The species is arrhenotokous. Mites overwinter on the diapausing adult beetles and do not infest the immature stages of their host. Even at high population levels, the mites do not noticeably affect the longevity or fecundity of their hosts.


1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Ryg ◽  
Thomas G. Smith ◽  
Nils Are Øritsland

Seasonal changes in body mass and body composition of ringed seals (Phoca hispida) from the Svalbard Islands are described. The blubber content of adult females decreased from a high of about 50% at the beginning of the pupping season in March–April to a low of 31% during moulting in June. In adult males, the blubber content decreased from 41% in March to 29% in June. By estimating an individual seal's body mass by 1 April from its standard body length, we calculated an average daily loss of body mass of 160 g/day in adult females and 100 g/day in adult males from the start of lactation to the middle of moulting. The blubber content of sexually immature seals was less in June and July than in April, but the seasonal changes were smaller than in adult seals. We found no evidence of significant changes in core mass in adult seals, and suggest that the seasonal body mass changes are mostly due to changes in body fat content.


1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 1151-1157 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Fenton

The social calls of 14 Myotis lucifugus (5 adult males; 5 adult females; 2 subadult males; 2 subadult females) produced under controlled conditions were more variable than echolocation calls made by hunting individuals in the wild. The social calls contained lower frequencies and in some cases were of longer duration than the echolocation calls. Careful examination of sound spectrographs of the calls indicated tremendous variability in details of frequency and time. Although several types of calls can be recognized, a discrete classification is not feasible because of the variability. The possible significance of the variation in the calls of these bats is discussed in the context of recognition of individuals by their vocalizations.


1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Harland ◽  
Peter J. Blancher ◽  
John S. Millar

Livetrapping and removal trapping were used to monitor a population of Peromyscus leucopus. Breeding adult arid young of the year females averaged 2.0 and 1.1 litters per year, respectively. Nest mortality was 12–31%, while 58% of the juveniles disappeared within 2 weeks after weaning. The rate of disappearance of juvenile males (77%) was higher than that of juvenile females (44%); the greater loss of males was attributed to mortality. Loss of subadult and adult mice within 2 weeks after initial capture averaged 45 and 51%, respectively, and did not differ between the sexes. However, more males than females were recorded as entering the trapping grids, indicating that males tend to explore new areas more than females. Among resident mice, adult males had the highest rate of disappearance (0.31/week) while adult females had the lowest (0.05/week).


1982 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 577-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. P. Stephens ◽  
P. S. Klimiuk ◽  
S. Warrington ◽  
J. L. Taylor ◽  
E. B. Mawer

1. The exposure of Asian immigrants to effective quantities of naturally occurring ultraviolet light was investigated by observing the increase in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations during the summer months. 2. The seasonal increase in adult males was greater than in adult females. 3. There was a significant positive correlation between the seasonal increase and the prevailing 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration, compatible with the view that the accumulation of inadequate stores of 25-hydroxyvitamin D during the summer months results in the low serum concentrations seen in Asian immigrants.


1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathi Conley ◽  
William E. Cooper

Preferences for ordering conjoined color terms in English were examined for twenty first-graders and twenty-one adults. On each trial the subjects were asked to name the two colors included in a pair of intertwined shoelaces. For children the results showed that ordering preferences were determined primarily by differences in brightness rather than hue or saturation, with relatively dark colors ordered before relatively light colors. The hue dimension showed more importance for adults, with red, pink, and purple typically occurring in first position. A small number of conjoined color pairs exhibited a significant ordering preference, with most of these pairs including white in second position. The strength of the ordering effect is related to the perceived level of contrast between the two colors, with more highly contrastive pairs being more likely to exhibit a fixed ordering. Additional results showed that ordering preferences were unrelated to individual color preferences, that adult females showed stronger ordering tendencies than adult males, and that the ordering exhibited by both male and female children correlated better with the ordering of adult females than with the ordering of adult males.


Parasitology ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Thompson

SUMMARYThe abundance of Profilicollis botulus was monitored in eider ducks for 3 years. No significant difference in P. botulus abundance was found between eiders taken alive and those collected dead from the shore line, or between adult males and adult females. Adult male eiders had a seasonal pattern of infection. Incubating female eiders lost their infection in almost all cases, suggesting that a seasonal pattern of infection must also occur in these birds. Eiders in their first winter had P. botulus abundances which were approximately 10 times that of adult eiders, but by the following summer the abundance had declined to that found in adults. Data are compared with previous studies undertaken on the Ythan estuary. Captive eiders were used to determine the developmental rate of female P. botulus and the percentage of administered cystacanths which established in the intestine. There was no evidence to suggest that male and female P. botulus have different life–spans.


2002 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
K R Hecker ◽  
M R Forbes ◽  
N J Léonard

We studied host damselflies Enallagma boreale (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) and their gregarine parasites (Apicomplexa: Eugregarinidae) to elucidate the causes and consequences of any sex biases in parasitism of adult hosts. Larvae of both sexes were highly infected, but there was no difference between male and female larvae in either prevalence or intensity of gregarine infections. Newly emerged adults had few or no parasites, thereby setting the stage for investigating accumulation of parasites by adults. Adult females had a higher prevalence and intensity of infection by gregarines than did males, but only on 1 (of 2) days when the potential confounding factor of host age was controlled for. Both adult males and females showed a positive correlation between longevity under conditions of food stress and the number of gregarines they initially carried. This finding may be explained if the food ingested with the infective cysts is more beneficial than the parasites are harmful, and it also has implications for investigating sex biases in numbers of trophically transmitted parasites of such insects.


Author(s):  
Jon Brommer ◽  
Jenni Poutanen ◽  
Jyrki Pusenius ◽  
Mikael Wikström

Adult sex ratio and fecundity are key population parameters in sustainable wildlife management, but inferring these requires estimates of the density of at least three age/sex classes of the population (male and female adults and juveniles). We used an array of 36 wildlife camera traps during 2–3 weeks in autumn prior to harvest during two consecutive years, and recorded white-tailed deer adult males, adult females and fawns from the pictures. Simultaneously, we collected fecal DNA (fDNA) from 92 20mx20m plots placed in 23 clusters of four plots between the camera traps. We identified individuals from fDNA samples with microsatellite markers and estimated the total sex ratio and population density using Spatial Capture Recapture (SCR). The fDNA-SCR analysis concluded equal sex ratio in the first year and female bias in the second year, and no difference in space use between sexes (fawns and adults combined). Camera information was analyzed in a Spatial Capture (SC) framework assuming an informative prior for animals’ space use, either (1) as estimated by fDNA-SCR (same for all age/sex classes), (2) as assumed from the literature (space use of adult males larger than adult females and fawns), (3) by inferring adult male space use from individually-identified males from the camera pictures. These various SC approaches produced plausible inferences on fecundity, but also inferred total density to be lower than the estimate provided by fDNA-SCR in one of the study years. SC approaches where adult male and female were allowed to differ in their space use suggested the population had a female-biased adult sex ratio. In conclusion, SC approaches allowed estimating the pre-harvest population parameters of interest and provided conservative density estimates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-362
Author(s):  
Hwa-Young Pyo

Purpose: The present study was performed to compare the aerodynamic characteristics of males and females during reading paragraph task.Methods: Thirty-seven normal adult males (18-30 yrs) and thirty-nine normal adult females (18-34 yrs) were participated in this experiment. They read a part of ‘Gaeul’ paragraph with comfortable phonation, and the reading samples were recorded and analyzed by ‘Running Speech’ program of Phonatory Aerodynamic System (PAS).Results: Phonation time (with voicing) and expiratory airflow duration were significantly longer in females, but measures of inspiratory airflow duration, peak expiratory airflow, expiratory and inspiratory volumes were significantly higher in males. The difference in total duration and peak inspiratory airflow did not show statistical significance.Conclusion: Results revealed that there was a significant gender difference in aerodynamic measures of duration and airflow during the reading paragraph task. In evaluating and intervening aerodynamics of voice and voice disorder patients, we should also consider the gender-different aerodynamic characteristics in continuous speech.


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