Rodent sociality and parasite diversity
Rodent sociality and parasite diversity
复制标题
DOI：
10.1098/rsbl.2007.0393
复制
发表时间：
2007-12-22
期刊：
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Morand, Serge
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bordes, Frederic;Blumstein, Daniel T.;Morand, Serge
寄生虫的风险被认为是社会性的一般成本，生活在较大群体中的个体通常被认为更有可能感染寄生虫。然而，矛盾的结果已经报告了组大小和直接传播的寄生虫感染之间的关系。我们使用独立的对比，研究啮齿动物的社会性指数和他们的大型寄生虫（蠕虫和节肢动物，如跳蚤，蜱，乳虱和中气门螨）的多样性之间的关系。我们发现，直接传播的体外寄生虫的物种丰富度随着啮齿动物的社会性水平显着下降，而体内寄生虫的物种丰富度则没有显着下降。更大的同质性的生物环境（即减少数量的同居宿主物种）的更社会的物种可能会减少外寄生虫的多样性，通过损害外寄生虫的传播和交换。我们的发现也可能是由于社会生活的有益结果，包括行为防御，如异理，以及通过稀释效应增加对寄生虫的避免。
The risk of parasitism is considered to be a general cost of sociality and individuals living in larger groups are typically considered to be more likely to be infected with parasites. However, contradictory results have been reported for the relationship between group size and infection by directly transmitted parasites. We used independent contrasts to examine the relationship between an index of sociality in rodents and the diversity of their macroparasites (helminths and arthropods such as fleas, ticks, suckling lice and mesostigmatid mites). We found that the species richness of directly transmitted ectoparasites, but not endoparasites, decreased significantly with the level of rodent sociality. A greater homogeneity in the biotic environment (i.e. a reduced number of cohabiting host species) of the more social species may have reduced ectoparasites' diversity by impairing ectoparasites transmission and exchange. Our finding may also result from beneficial outcomes of social living that include behavioural defences, like allogrooming, and the increased avoidance of parasites through dilution effects.