No correlation between ectoparasitism and male mating success in a damselfly: Why parasite behavior matters

The mating success of individually marked male damselflies parasitized by w ater mites was closely followed The number of ectoparasites could be determ ined exactly from knowledge of the parasite's life cycle. In contrast to pr evious studies no correlation between water mite infestation and male matin g success was revealed, The reasons for this discrepancy may be explained b y the inclusion of die parasite's behavior. The body fat content of the mal es was negatively correlated with the mite load, indicating that parasitism reduces host's condition, It is hypothesised that the water mites damselfl y system is not valuable for testing the Hamilton and Zuk hypothesis Furthe rmore, selection exerted or mediated by parasites should act during the ten eral phase.