The distribution and coexistence of gill ectoparasites of 121 specimens of Cephalopholis argus Bloch et Schneider, caught between October 1994 and October 1995, were investigated. Adults of the monogenean Benedenia sp. and copepod Hatschekia sp., the larval caligid copepod Caligus sp. (copepodite and chalimus stages), and praniza larvae of the isopod Gnathia sp. were found. All species were aggregated within the host population. Infracommunities were poor, with only 40.5% of fish infected by two parasite species. Only two individual fish harboured all the parasite species observed at the component community level. Prevalences were less than 50% and mean intensities were low (less than 6 parasites/host). No dominant parasite species were observed in the host population. The spatial distribution of each parasite species was studied on different partitions of the gill arches. Adult parasite stages that are mobile showed much overlap in their distribution, whereas temporarily attached larvae of Caligidae were more site specific. Copepodite and chalimus larvae showed niche restriction that is probably due to gregarious behaviour. Positive associations between caligid larvae reflected intraspecific interaction for site and/or resources. Each of the Caligus sp. larval stages prefers specific sites, as do the adults, which occur exclusively in the buccal cavity of the host. Infracommunities were too poor and too few to induce processes of interspecific competition.
Just nineteen species of ectoparasitic helminths were found in a survey of over 1,500 individuals of 26 species of sillaginid fishes in the Indo-west Pacific, A twentieth worm is known only from the literature; a twenty-first, also known only from the literature, is considered a doubtful record. Fifteen of the twenty worms are branchial monogeneans, one is a monoge-nean of the pharyngeal plates, one is an ectoparasitic digenean living under the scales, and three are leeches of the mouth cavity and fins. The most common monogeneans were diplectanids (Diplectanum spp. and Monoplectanum spp.) and microcotylids (Polylabris spp.), each with five recently described or redescribed species. Of the remaining monogeneans, three were extremely rare, and two were uncommon. Pseudnbivagina sp. and Polynemicola sp. (Microcotylidae) and Pseudempleurosoma sp. (Ancyrocephalidae) were represented by only a single worm each from three different hosts (Sillago robusta, S. sihama, and S. ingenuua, respectively). The gyrodactylid Gyrodactylus sp, is widespread and was recorded from four species of sillaginids (S. ciliata, S. japonica, S. schomburgkii and S. sihama). Encolyllabe chirrmemi Robinson (Capsalidae) is recorded for the first time from sillaginids, but only on S. aeolus.'Tv/o additional monogeneans are known from sillaginids only in the literature: Dacty-logyrus sp, (Dactylogyridae) is known only from cultured S. sihama', the single specimen of Microcotyle sp. (Microcotylidae) recorded from Sillaginodes punctata is probably a contaminant, since the haptor was missing. The generalist trematode Trans-versolrema Ucinum Manter (Transversotrematidae) was found for the first time in samples of four species of sillaginids (Sillago analis, S. ingenuua, S. lutea and 5. sihama). Three species of piscicolid leeches were encountered: Austrohdella translucens Badham was common on the fins of three large inshore sillaginids (S. ciliata, S. schomburgkii and S. analis); a single specimen of the generalist species Zeylanicobdella arugamensis De Silva was recovered from S. soringa·, and specimens of Z. stellata (Moore) infected S. schomburgkii and S. analis. The diversity of host-specific worms in Sillaginidae is low compared with those of some other Indo-west Pacific fishes.
Although the Prisoner’s dilemma is a leading metaphor for the evolution of sociality, only a few studies demonstrate that this game indeed operates in nature. We offer an alternative perspective, in which parasites and their hosts are used as a model system, suggesting that Prisoner’s dilemma may be rare due to different individuals experiencing variation in the payoffs they receive from alternative strategies. Ectoparasites (such as fleas) move stochastically between hosts, causing differential parasite burdens. The resulting variance in the need for cooperation – in this case cooperative allogrooming – means that payoffs for different strategies (e.g. cooperate and defect) are not fixed. Our simulations revealed that due to parasite dynamics, cooperation among hosts conforms to a mixture of two games: Mutualism and Cruel Bind, both of which are more likely to coerce individuals into mutual cooperation than Prisoner’s dilemma. Though interesting, Prisoner’s dilemma is in fact the least likely scenario. If payoff variation is common, the dominance of the Prisoner’s dilemma paradigm may have made us unnecessarily puzzled by cooperation in nature.
Three new species, belonging to the newly proposed genus Pseudopicobia gen. n., inhabiting body quill feathers of puffbirds (Piciformes: Bucconidae), are described: P. nonnula sp. n. from Nonnula frontalis (Sclater) in Colombia, P. malacoptila sp. n. from Malacoptila panamensis Lafresnaye in Colombia and P. hapaloptila sp. n. from Hapaloptila castanea (Verreaux) in Ecuador. The new genus differs from morphologically similar genus Picobia Heller, 1878 by the absence of the genital setae, absence of the genital lobes, solenidia φI represented by microsetae, and by the presence of setiform solenidia σI. Syringophilid mites are recorded from birds of this family for the first time.
1_External morphological characters were used to reconstruct a phylogeny of the mite family Syringophilidae (Acariformes: Cheyletoidea), which are permanent parasites inhabiting the quills of bird feathers. A total of 53 syringophilid genera and 79 characters were included in the data matrix; maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian analyses (BA) were performed to determine their phylogenetic relationships. The consensus of unweighted MP trees was weakly resolved. Only four generic groups were recognized: Aulonastus + Krantziaulonastus (i) and (Creagonycha + Kethleyana) + (Megasyringophilus + Selenonycha) (ii) – both with low Bremer support (BS 1); the subfamily Picobiinae – Picobia, Calamincola, Columbiphilus (Neopicobia + Rafapicobia) (BS 12) (iii) and Psittaciphilus generic group – (Meitingsunes + Psittaciphilus) (Peristerophila + (Neoperisterophila + (Castosyringophilus + Terratosyringophilus))) (BS 2) (iv). BA revealed a consensus tree with a topology similar to MP. The two main groups recognized by MP, the subfamily Picobiinae and Psittaciphilus, both received the highest support of 1; while two other groups recognized by MP – Aulonastus + Krantziaulonastus and (Creagonycha + Kethleyana) + (Megasyringophilus + Selenonycha) received relatively low support of 0.73–74 and 0.76–77, respectively., 2_The consensus of re-weighted MP trees was almost fully resolved but, the majority of the generic groups, excluding the Picobiinae and Psittaciphilus were supported by just a few non-unique synapomorphies with a high probability of homoplastic origin. The most intriguing result is the paraphyly of the Syringophilinae in respect to picobiines. The pattern of the re-weighted tree demonstrates only patches of parallel evolution at the level of syringophilid genera and bird orders. Perhaps horizontal shifts on phylogenetically distant hosts and colonization of quill (calamus) types other than primaries and secondaries were also important in the evolution of the syringophilids., Maciej Skoracki, Eliza Glowska, Andre V. Bochkov., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Female, physogastric female and male of Picobia polonica sp. n. collected from the domestic hen Gallus gallus domesticus (L.) in Poland are described and the phenomenon of physogastry in this and related species is briefly discussed. Picobia polonica is similar to Picobia khulkhshani (Kivganov et Sharafat, 1995). These two species can be distinguished by the following characters: P. polonica: chelicerae dentate, each with three minute teeth; setae g1 and pg2 subequal in length; ratio pg1 : pg2, 3 : 1. P. khulkhshani: chelicerae edentate; setae g1 twice shorter than pg2; ratio pg1 : pg2, 1.6 : 1.
Bats of the family Phyllostomidae are common hosts to streblids known as bat flies. Here, we discuss the component community, prevalence and intensity of infection with species of Streblidae on an assemblage of phyllostomid bats in the Cafuringa Environmental Protection Area (APA Cafuringa) in the core area of the Cerrado in Central Brazil. A total of 1 841 streblid individuals of 24 species occurred on 752 bats of 14 species. Ten species of streblids infected Glossophaga soricina (Pallas), whereas seven or fewer streblid species infected the other bat species. Nine bat fly species presented a prevalence of more than 50%, whereas some differences in the abundance of bat flies among hosts were observed. Strebla wiedemanni Kolenati, 1856 and Trichobius furmani Wenzel, 1966 were more host-specific compared to the other streblids, and they occurred in greater abundance on their preferred hosts. Trichobius uniformis Curran, 1935 and Strebla mirabilis (Waterhouse, 1879) were the least host-specific, occurring on five and six hosts, respectively., Ludmilla M. S. Aguiar, Yasmine Antonini., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Seven mite species belonging to the genus Syringophilopsis Kethley, 1970 (Acari: Prostigmata: Cheyletoidea) are recorded from 10 passeriform host species from the USA. Three new species are described and illustrated: Syringophilopsis polioptilus sp. n. from Polioptila caerulea (Linnaeus) (Polioptilidae); S. empidonax sp. n. from Empidonax hammondii (Vesey) and Empidonax wrightii Baird (Tyrannidae); and S. sialiae sp. n. from Sialia mexicana Swainson (Turdidae). In addition, records of new hosts are given: Turdus migratorius Linnaeus (Turdidae) for Syringophilopsis turdus (Fritsch, 1958); three tyrannid species (Tyrannidae), Myiarchus crinitus (Linnaeus), M. cinerascens (Lawrence) and Tyrannus verticalis Say for S. tyranni Bochkov et Galloway, 2004; Euphagus cyanocephalus (Wagler) (Icteridae) for S. elongatus (Ewing, 1911); and two parulid species (Parulidae), Dendroica graciae Baird and Wilsonia pusilla (Wilson) for S. dendroicae Bochkov et Galloway, 2001. All known species of the genus Syringophilopsis from the Nearctic Region are summarized in tabular form. Syringophilopsis porzanae Bochkov et Galloway, 2004 is reassigned to the genus Ascetomylla Kethley, 1970.
Two new species of the subfamily Picobiinae (Acari: Prostigmata: Syringophilidae) are described: Picobia ploceus sp. n. from Ploceus ocularis Smith (Passeriformes: Ploceidae) and Picobia lamprotornis sp. n. from Lamprotornis superbus (Rüppell) (Passeriformes: Sturnidae), both from Kenya. Additionally, new hosts are recorded: Turdoides jardineii (Smith) (Passeriformes: Leiothrichidae) from Kenya and Tanzania, T. rubiginosa (Rüppell) from Kenya, T. leucopygia (Rüppell) from Zambia and Namibia, for Picobia dziabaszewskii Glowska, Dragun-Damian et Dabert, 2012; Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines) (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae) from Kenya, for Picobia pycnonoti Glowska, Skoracki et Khourly, 2007; Dendropicos griseocephalus (Boddaert) (Piciformes: Picidae) from Tanzania and D. goertae (St. Müller) from Kenya, for Neopicobia freya Skoracki et Unsoeld, 2014; Dendropicos fuscescens (Vieillot) from Zambia and Campethera nubica (Boddaert) from Kenya, for Picobia dryobatis (Fritsch, 1958).
Pterygosoma livingstonei sp. n. collected from the Kenyan lizard Agama caudospinosa Meek shows morphological affinities with other South African congener species parasitizing lizards of the genus Agama, especially with P. triangulare Lawrence, 1936, but it differs in having glabrous genua II and III. P. livingstonei shows affinities with the Lawrence's hispida species group in the characters of genital and peripheral setae. This new species was found concentrated in a nuchal ''mite pocket-like structure'', a behaviour previously unreported among species belonging to the genus Pterygosoma. Mite pockets (or acarodomatia, acarinaria) of lizards typically house damaging chigger mites, and are usually interpreted as the evolutionary host's response to limit damage caused by parasites. Because scale mites are permanent ectoparasites and less damaging than seasonally occurring larval trombiculids, the heavy infestation by P. livingstonei in the nuchal skin folds of its host is interpreted as a consequence of the best utilisation of an available protected site by these mites that spend their entire life cycle on their host and whose primitive body shape prevents them from seeking shelter beneath the scales of their lizard host.