Parasites of the Shiny Cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis, and the Austral Blackbird, Curaeus curaeus, (Passeriformes: Icteridae) in Chile

Abstract

<jats:p>Abstract Comparative studies of parasites in sympatric bird species have been generally scarce. Parasitic infection/transmission can be spread in a number of ways that suggests possible direct and indirect, horizontal transmission between avian hosts. In order to determine whether two sympatric icterids from Central and Southern Chile share their parasite fauna (ecto- and endoparasites), we examined parasites of 27 Shiny Cowbirds, Molothrus bonariensis, and 28 Austral Blackbirds, Curaeus curaeus, including individuals captured in the wild and carcasses. We found that Shiny Cowbirds were infected with the chewing lice Brueelia bonariensis, Philopterus sp. 1, the feather mites Amerodectes molothrus, Proctophyllodes spp. (species 1 and 2), and the helminths Mediorhynchus papillosus, Plagiorhynchus sp., Dispharynx nasuta and Tetrameres paucispina, while Austral Blackbirds had the chewing lice Myrsidea sp., Philopterus sp. 2, the feather mites Proctophyllodes sp. 3, Amerodectes sp., and three helminths: Anonchotaenia sp., Capillaria sp. and M. papillosus. The flea Dasypsyllus (Neornipsyllus) cteniopus was found only on the Austral Blackbird. The only parasite species shared by both icterids was the acanthocephalan M. papillosus, possibly due to their feeding on the same intermediate insect hosts. With the exception of B. bonariensis and Philopterus sp. 1 found on the Shiny Cowbird, all species reported in this study represent new parasite-host associations and new records of parasite diversity in Chile.</jats:p>

Parasitic fauna of the invasive house sparrow (Passer domesticus) from Ñuble region, Chile: an example of co-introduced parasites

“…Three species have been previously reported in the latter country: Anonchotaenia longiovata (Fuhrmann, 1901) in the austral blackbird, Curaeus curaeus (Molina, 1782) and long-tailed meadowlark, Leistes loyca (Molina, 1782) (Icteridae); Anonchotaenia (Paranonchotaenia) prolixa Phillips, Georgiev, Waeschenbach, Mariaux, 2014 in the white-crested Elaenia, Elaenia albiceps (D'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) (Tyrannidae); Anonchotaenia (Paranonchotaenia) macrocephala Fuhrmann, 1908 in Tachycineta leucopyga meyeni (Canabis, 1850) (Hirundinidae) (Rausch & Morgan, 1947;Soto et al, 2013;Phillips et al, 2014); and Anonchotaenia sp. from C. curaeus (Mena et al, 2020). Thus, the present finding represents the first record for this host in Chile and the third avian host in South America, with Sporophila caerulescens (Vieillot, 1823) (Thraupidae) and Z. capensis acting as the other two passerine hosts, although their localities of origin were not detailed (Rausch & Morgan, 1947).…”

“…has been recorded from this host in Peru and Brazil (Tantaleán et al, 2005;Santos et al, 2020a). In Chile, M. papillosus has been reported in the rufous-collared sparrow Zonotrichia capensis (Müller, 1776) (Passerellidae) (Llanos- Soto et al, 2017) and from the shiny cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis (Gmelin, 1789) (Icteridae) (Mena et al, 2020). This parasite has an indirect life cycle, with darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) acting as intermediate hosts (Amin & Dailey, 1998).…”