Effects of bot fly, Cuterebra fontinella, parasitism on male aggression and female choice in Peromyscus leucopus

Negative effect of the arthropod parasite, Sarcoptes scabiei, on testes mass in Iberian ibex, Capra pyrenaica

“…In vertebrates most studies that have reported reduced mating and rearing capacity in parasitized hosts have been performed on birds (Hurtrez-Boussès et al, 1998;Bize et al, 2004;Marzal et al, 2005;Velando et al, 2006) and fish (Pélabon et al, 2005;Kolluru et al, 2009). What little data concerning wild mammals that exists generally deals with female fecundity (Iason and Boag, 1988;Pence and Windberg, 1994;Neuhaus, 2003;Pioz et al, 2008) or host behavior (Cramer and Cameron, 2007) and there are enormous gaps in our knowledge regarding the effects of parasites on the testes of wild mammals. Recently, Santiago-Moreno et al (2010) examined the relationship between sperm quality and the level of parasitism in Iberian ibex.…”

Are body mass and parasite load related to social partnerships and mating inMicrotus ochrogaster?

“…In choice tests conducted in the field with free-living white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), females spent twice as much time with males that were infested with botflies than those that were uninfested (Cramer and Cameron 2007). This result is opposite to what would be expected.…”

“…Results from empirical studies provide mixed support for this hypothesis. In some studies, males that were free from ecto-or endoparasites were preferred as mates compared with parasitized males (Ehman and Scott 2001;Kavaliers and Colwell 1995;Kavaliers et al 2003Kavaliers et al , 2005Kennedy et al 1987;Mihalcin 2002;Willis and Poulin 2000;Zuk 1988), whereas in others male parasite load was not correlated with female preference (Abbot and Dill 2001;Barber 2002;Cramer and Cameron 2007;Dale et al 1996;Zuk 1987;Zuk et al 1998). In addition, some studies have shown that females mating with parasitized males produce fewer offspring than those that mate with uninfected males (Barnard et al 1998;Ehman and Scott 2002;Hillgarth and Wingfield 1997).…”

Effect of Bot Fly Parasitism on Vertical Habitat use byPeromyscus leucopus

“…Since mass of Bot Fly larvae can represent up to 5% of host body mass Karasov 1994, Slansky 2007), investigators have asked how infestations of Bot Fly larvae affect White-footed Mice. Infestations do not affect reproduction (Smith 1977), metabolism Webster 1974, Munger andKarasov 1994), survival (Munger and Karasov 1991), body condition or population demography (Cramer and Cameron 2006), movement distance (Cramer and Cameron 2010), or social behavior (Cramer and Cameron 2007). In fact, contrary to expectations that animals suffer an energetic cost of infestation, infested animals survived longer than uninfested animals (Clark and Kaufman 1990, Cramer and Cameron 2006, Jaffe et al 2005, and animals with multiple Bot Fly larvae survived longer than animals with a single Bot Fly larva (Cramer and Cameron 2006).…”