Brooke M de L
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
J Parasitol. 2010 Dec;96(6):1076-80. doi: 10.1645/GE-2513.1. Epub 2010 Jul 19.
There is limited information about the natural history of the transmission of feather lice (Phthiraptera) from parent birds to their young. This article therefore examines the transmission of 4 species of feather lice from parent blackbirds to their nestlings in an English population, and addresses questions formulated from the perspective of the lice. The lice that disperse onto the several young in the nest were mostly found on the larger chicks, those with higher survival prospects. The lice dispersing to chicks were overwhelmingly nymphs, which cannot be sexed morphologically, and so the prediction that the adult lice dispersing would be disproportionately female, potential founders of a new population, was only supported for the most numerous species, Brueelia merulensis. There was no evidence that louse dispersal to chicks was density dependent and more likely when the parents were more heavily infested. Finally, I predicted that lice might aggregate on female blackbirds, which undertake more brooding, to increase their chance of transmission to nestlings. For 1 louse species, B. merulensis, prevalence, but not louse intensity, was higher on female than male blackbirds. For 2 other louse species, Philopterus turdi and Menacanthus eurysternus, no differences between male and female blackbirds were detected.
关于羽虱（食毛目）从亲鸟传播至雏鸟的自然史，相关信息有限。因此，本文研究了英国种群中4种羽虱从成年乌鸫传播至雏鸟的情况，并从羽虱的角度探讨了相关问题。扩散到巢中几只雏鸟身上的羽虱大多出现在较大的雏鸟身上，即那些存活前景较高的雏鸟。扩散到雏鸟身上的羽虱绝大多数是若虫，无法通过形态学区分性别，因此关于成年羽虱扩散时雌性比例过高（新种群的潜在奠基者）这一预测，仅在数量最多的物种——乌鸫布鲁氏羽虱上得到了支持。没有证据表明羽虱向雏鸟的扩散与密度有关，也没有证据表明当亲鸟感染更严重时羽虱更有可能扩散到雏鸟身上。最后，我预测羽虱可能会聚集在承担更多育雏工作的雌性乌鸫身上，以增加它们传播给雏鸟的机会。对于一种羽虱——乌鸫布鲁氏羽虱，雌性乌鸫身上的感染率高于雄性，但羽虱数量没有差异。对于另外两种羽虱——欧椋鸟毛虱和宽胸禽虱，未检测到雄性和雌性乌鸫之间存在差异。
