Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
Exp Parasitol. 2010 Dec;126(4):451-5. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2010.05.019. Epub 2010 May 31.
An essential pre-requisite to understanding the nature of a host-parasite relationship is a good knowledge of the parasite's ecology, including its life history. Despite removing a significant amount of blood from their common swift (Apus apus) hosts, no detrimental effect of parasitism by the louse fly (Crataerina pallida) has been found. This may be because little is known of the characteristics of the populations of this parasite. We studied the structure of louse fly populations that may influence its pathogenicity. High levels of prevalence were seen, with 100% of nests being parasitized during 2007 and 2008. Louse fly pupae were found to be aggregated, with a frequency distribution best described by the negative binomial model in 2006-2008. The mean parasitic load per nest was 3.72±2.65 in 2007 and 4.21±3.09 in 2008, much higher than that found in comparative studies. Louse fly numbers declined throughout the swift breeding season. Parasite populations were heavily female biased, except for at the initial and final stages of the nestling period.
了解寄生虫与宿主关系的本质，需要先对寄生虫的生态学，包括其生活史，有很好的了解。虱蝇（Crataerina pallida）从它们的普通雨燕（Apus apus）宿主身上吸取大量血液，但并未发现对寄生虫有任何不利影响。这可能是因为人们对这种寄生虫种群的特征知之甚少。我们研究了可能影响其致病性的虱蝇种群结构。在 2007 年和 2008 年，发现高流行率，100%的巢穴都被寄生。2006-2008 年，虱蝇蛹呈聚集分布，频率分布最好用负二项式模型来描述。2007 年每个巢穴的平均寄生负荷为 3.72±2.65，2008 年为 4.21±3.09，远高于其他比较研究的结果。虱蝇数量在整个雨燕繁殖季节呈下降趋势。寄生虫种群雌性偏多，除了在雏鸟期的初始和最后阶段。
