Bird blow flies (Protocalliphora) in North America (Diptera: Calliphoridae), with notes on the Palearctic species

Bennett, Gordon F.; Sabrosky, Curtis W.; Whitworth, Terry L.

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.46311

Cited by 90 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…First, agricultural intensification can act directly on P. sialia populations by reducing sources of nectar as well as the number of shelter and overwintering sites necessary for adult survival (Bennett and Whitworth 1991). Second, it can act indirectly by diminishing bird host populations (Sabrosky et al 1989, Donald et al 2001, Murphy 2003, Bianchi et al 2006. Interestingly, the number of P. sialia pupae per nest increased as the bird-breeding season progressed, as reported in several other studies (Bortolotti 1984, Roby et al 1992; indicating that birds nesting earlier in the season benefit from lower levels of ectoparasitism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on a tri‐trophic system within agricultural lands

Daoust¹,

Bélisle²,

Savage³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

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Citation: Daoust, S., M. Bélisle, J. Savage, A. Robillard, R. Baeta, and J. Brodeur. 2012. Direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on a tri-trophic system within agricultural lands. Ecosphere 3(11):94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ ES12-00300.1Abstract. Although several studies have examined the influence of landscape structure and agricultural intensification on species abundance and diversity, few have addressed how these impact populations across multiple trophic levels. We investigated the effects of landscape structure on the tri-trophic interactions between a bird host (the Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor (Vieillot)), its blowfly ectoparasites (Protocalliphora Hough), and their parasitoid wasps (Nasonia Ashmead) across 13 spatial scales, along a gradient of agricultural intensification covering 10,200 km 2 in southern Québec, Canada. We showed that the three taxa responded to landscape structure at distinctive spatial scales that are relative to their size rather than their trophic rank. This response, however, differed according to habitat type. The three organisms responded to the amount of intensive cultures (maize, soybean and other cereals) at smaller spatial scales than to the amount of extensive cultures (hayfields and pastures). Although the number of Tree Swallow fledglings, the number of Protocalliphora sialia Shannon & Dobroscky pupae and the number of P. sialia pupae parasitized by Nasonia sp. per nest were negatively affected by agricultural intensification, our data do not support the prediction that organisms at the higher trophic levels are more susceptible to habitat degradation. Here, ectoparasites at the second trophic level were disproportionally affected by agricultural intensification; the abundance of P. sialia decreased by 80% along the gradient of agricultural intensification compared to a 20% and 35% reduction in the number of Tree Swallow fledglings and in the level of parasitism by Nasonia sp., respectively. Our work highlights the importance of designing protocols that take spatial aspects of trophic interactions into account when studying the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on populations and communities, as these interactions dictate local biodiversity and community function. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of considering multiple landscape parameters when identifying the functional spatial scales of an organism, as a failure to do so could lead to an underestimation of the area it uses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pupae from which insects failed to emerge were dissected and examined. Specimens were keyed to species v www.esajournals.org following Sabrosky et al (1989) and Whitworth (2003) for Protocalliphora, and following Darling and Werren (1990) and Raychoudhury et al (2010) for Nasonia.…”

Section: Insect Collection and Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on a tri‐trophic system within agricultural lands

Daoust¹,

Bélisle²,

Savage³

et al. 2012

Ecosphere

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“…Larval blow flies feed mostly at night (Sabrosky et al 1989), so nestlings sampled earlier in the day may not have had enough time to replace the blood lost to larval feeding, whereas those nestlings blood-sampled later in the day may have replaced their lost blood.…”

Section: Haematocritmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A majority ofhaematophagous ectoparasites that are found in nests and on nestling tree swallows in north-central BC are larval blow flies belonging to the genera Protocalliphora and Trypocalliphora (Dawson 2004). Life cycles of these blow flies are not known in great detail, but female blow flies find active bird nests in which to lay their own eggs (Sabrosky et al 1989). Eggs hatch within 24 hand the larvae begin to feed intermittently on the blood of nestlings, mostly burrowing in nesting material during the day and crawling up to take blood meals at night.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most Protocalliphora species attach to the skin of their hosts, whereas the single species in the genus Trypocalliphora burrows subcutaneously. The larvae go through three instars, each of which requires at least one blood meal, and then pupate in the nesting material (Sabrosky et al 1989). Adult blow flies emerge after the nestlings have fledged (Hannam 2006 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trade-offs in the early development of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor): offspring characteristics, offspring quality, and parental care

Unger¹

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Life-history theory predicts that because organisms have limited resources available to them, they must make decisions to prudently allocate resources in a way that maximizes fitness.Therefore, there is expected to be a trade-off between current reproductive effort and future survival and reproduction, with those individuals investing in a current breeding attempt doing so at a cost to their own survival and/or future fecundity. Altricial birds rearing young are consequently expected to be prudent in their allocation of resources between broodmaintenance and self-maintenance, and their allocation choices may be influenced by numerous offspring characteristics that potentially indicate offspring "quality" or condition.My thesis had three main goals: 1) to understand if the smallest nestling tree swallows in a nest are of inherent poor "quality", or if they are the smallest simply due to being outcompeted by their older and larger siblings; 2) to investigate whether, in an environment with parasites, it is the parents or their offspring who bear the costs associated with parasitism; and 3) to better understand the function of gape and flange colouration in nestling tree swallows. Overall, I wanted to understand how each of these nestling characteristics affect, and are affected by, parental life-history trade-offs. By pairing observational data with a cross-fostering experiment, I determined that both total egg mass and yolk mass increased with order of laying. N estlings that hatched earlier in the hatching sequence and were manipulated to be smaller within the size hierarchies in nests performed in a similar fashion as if they had retained their size advantage, but had lower immune responses, which may be because these earlier-hatched nestlings hatched from earlier-laid eggs with smaller yolks. By manipulating parasite levels in nests and then comparing nestling immune function and growth, and parental provisioning rates with control nests in a three-year study, I observed no 11 significant effects of larval blow flies parasitizing nestlings, except parasitized nestlings showed slightly lower haematocrit levels in one year. Deleterious effects of parasitism may have been compensated for by parents, as the parents of parasitized nestlings fed their young at marginally higher rates than the parents of parasite-free nestlings. By manipulating either gape redness or flange colouration (both within ultraviolet and human-visible wavelengths) of nestling tree swallows and carrying out feeding trials, I determined that parents did not preferentially feed nestlings with redder gapes. Instead, they fed nestlings with flanges that reflect in the ultraviolet more than nestlings with non-ultraviolet-reflective flanges, although only when nestlings were older. Parents also appeared to feed nestlings with blackened flanges less throughout the nestling period. Overall, my studies indicate that 1) tree swallows may allocate extra nutrients to later-laid eggs to alleviate detrimental effects of within-brood size hierarchi...

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Long‐term variation in environmental conditions influences host–parasite fitness

Musgrave

Bartlow

Fair

2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Long‐term data on host and parasite fitness are important for predicting how host–parasite interactions will be altered in an era of global change. Here, we use data collected from 1997 to 2013 to explore effects of changing environmental conditions on bird–blowfly interactions in northern New Mexico. The objectives of this study were to examine what climate variables influence blowfly prevalence and intensity and to determine whether blowflies and climate variables affect bird fledging success. We examined how temperature, precipitation, and drought affect two parasitic blowflies and their hosts, Western Bluebirds ( Sialia mexicana ) and Ash‐throated Flycatchers ( Myiarchus cinerascens ). We found that blowfly prevalence did not change over time. Blowfly intensity increased over time in bluebird nests, but not in flycatcher nests. More blowflies result in slightly higher fledging success in bluebirds, but not flycatchers. There was a significant interaction between blowflies and precipitation on bluebird fledging success. For flycatchers, there was a significant interaction between blowflies and temperature and between blowflies and drought severity on fledging success. Given that the southwest is projected to be hotter and have more frequent and prolonged droughts, we predict that flycatchers may be negatively impacted by blowflies if these trends continue. Future work should focus on investigating the role of both blowflies and climate on fledging success. Climate patterns may negatively impact host fitness through altered parasite pressure.

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Bird blow flies (Protocalliphora) in North America (Diptera: Calliphoridae), with notes on the Palearctic species

Cited by 90 publications

References 25 publications

Direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on a tri‐trophic system within agricultural lands

Direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on a tri‐trophic system within agricultural lands

Trade-offs in the early development of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor): offspring characteristics, offspring quality, and parental care

Long‐term variation in environmental conditions influences host–parasite fitness

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