S. Hurtrez-bousses et al., Variations in prevalence and intensity of blow fly infestations in an insular Mediterranean population of blue tits, CAN J ZOOL, 77(2), 1999, pp. 337-341
Citations number
46
Categorie Soggetti
Animal Sciences
Journal title
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY-REVUE CANADIENNE DE ZOOLOGIE
A Corsican population of blue tits (Parus caeruleus) suffers extremely high
levels of infestation by two species of blow flies (genus Protocalliphora)
that have been suspected to influence the life-history traits of their hos
ts. By quantifying the abundance of the blow fly larvae infesting each broo
d of this population during 2 consecutive years, we showed that the distrib
ution of these parasites did not differ from a Poisson distribution. The in
tensity of blow fly parasitism (mean parasite load per infested nest) was i
ndependent of the time of breeding and the available space in the nest of t
heir bird hosts. Moreover, the total blow fly load per nest increased signi
ficantly with the number of chicks, whereas the parasite load per chick was
not linearly related to brood size.