Krüger Oliver
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2007 Oct 29;362(1486):1873-86. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1849.
The interactions between brood parasitic birds and their host species provide one of the best model systems for coevolution. Despite being intensively studied, the parasite-host system provides ample opportunities to test new predictions from both coevolutionary theory as well as life-history theory in general. I identify four main areas that might be especially fruitful: cuckoo female gentes as alternative reproductive strategies, non-random and nonlinear risks of brood parasitism for host individuals, host parental quality and targeted brood parasitism, and differences and similarities between predation risk and parasitism risk. Rather than being a rare and intriguing system to study coevolutionary processes, I believe that avian brood parasites and their hosts are much more important as extreme cases in the evolution of life-history strategies. They provide unique examples of trade-offs and situations where constraints are either completely removed or particularly severe.
巢寄生鸟类与其宿主物种之间的相互作用为协同进化提供了最佳的模型系统之一。尽管该系统已得到深入研究，但寄生虫 - 宿主系统仍提供了大量机会，可用于检验协同进化理论以及一般生活史理论的新预测。我确定了四个可能特别富有成果的主要领域：杜鹃雌性氏族作为替代生殖策略、宿主个体面临的巢寄生的非随机和非线性风险、宿主亲代质量与定向巢寄生，以及捕食风险和寄生风险之间的异同。我认为，鸟类巢寄生虫及其宿主并非是研究协同进化过程的罕见且引人入胜的系统，而是作为生活史策略进化中的极端案例更为重要。它们提供了权衡取舍以及限制条件要么完全消除要么格外严峻的独特例子。
