The Shiny Cowbird and the Village Weaver - A Model System for Studying Change in Host Response to Brood Parasitism

动物行为程序非技术摘要建议#：9816800PI：Cruz。亚历山大标题：闪亮的牛鸟和村织女-研究宿主对幼虫寄生反应变化的模型系统鸟类中的幼虫寄生发生在一个物种的雌性寄生在宿主物种的巢中时。然后，寄主物种饲养寄生虫的后代。寄主物种可能进化出对孵化寄生的防御。其中一种防御是卵子排斥，即将寄生物种的卵从巢中移走。伊斯帕尼奥拉岛引入了一种寄主物种--VillageWeaver，但没有寄生其孵化的寄生虫。克鲁兹博士在1982-1985年间进行的研究表明，在没有孵化寄生虫的情况下，村里的织女不再表现出射卵行为。最近，发光的牛鸟，一种乡村织工的幼虫，被引入伊斯帕尼奥拉岛，在那里产生了一个独特的自然实验，用于研究宿主如何防御幼虫寄生行为的进化。克鲁兹博士将确定村里的蜘蛛种群接触幼虫的时间长度；并将确定对幼虫的投卵和攻击等防御行为如何与暴露时间相关联。这项研究对理解鸟类寄生虫具有巨大的潜力。它具有广泛的进化意义，因为它将提供对宿主物种进化防御行为所需时间的估计。此外，由于牛鸟的幼鸟寄生可能对北美迁徙的鸣禽构成威胁，因此了解幼鸟寄生和宿主防御的动态是很重要的。这一知识对于保护鸟类多样性可能很重要。

Animal Behavior ProgramNontechnical AbstractProposal #: 9816800PI: Cruz. AlexanderTitle: The Shiny Cowbird and the Village Weaver - A Model System forStudying Change in Host Response to Brood ParasitismBrood parasitism in birds occurs when the females of one species lay theireggs in the nests of a host species. The host species then rears theoffspring of the parasite. Host species may evolve defenses against broodparasitism. One such defense is egg rejection in which eggs of theparasitic species are removed from the nest. A host species, the VillageWeaver, was introduced to the island of Hispaniola without its broodparasite. Studies conducted in 1982-1985 by Dr. Cruz showed that in theabsence of its brood parasite the village weaver ceased to exhibit eggrejection behavior. Recently, the shiny cow bird, a brood parasite of thevillage weaver, has been introduced to the island of Hispaniola therebyproducing a unique natural experiment for study of how host defensebehavior against brood parasitism may evolve. Dr. Cruz will determine thelength of time that populations of the village weaver have been exposed tothe brood parasite; and will determine how defense behaviors such as eggrejection and aggression toward the brood parasite are correlated with thetime of exposure.This research has great potential for the understanding of avian broodparasitism. It has broad evolutionary implications as it will provide anestimate of the time needed for a host species to evolve defensivebehavior. In addition, because brood parasitism by cow birds may pose athreat to migratory song birds in North America, it is important that thedynamics of brood parasitism and host defense be understood. Thisknowledge could be of importance with regard to conservation of aviandiversity.