Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boqer Campus, 84990 Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
Parasitology. 2012 Jan;139(1):60-8. doi: 10.1017/S0031182011001703.
We asked if and how feeding performance of fleas on an auxiliary host is affected by the phylogenetic distance between this host and the principal host of a flea. We investigated the feeding of 2 flea species, Parapulex chephrenis and Xenopsylla ramesis, on a principal (Acomys cahirinus and Meriones crassus, respectively) and 8 auxiliary host species. We predicted that fleas would perform better (higher proportion of fleas would feed and take larger bloodmeals) on (a) a principal rather than an auxiliary host and (b) auxiliary hosts phylogenetically closer to a principal host. Although feeding performance of fleas differed among different hosts, we found that: (1) fleas did not always perform better on a principal host than on an auxiliary host; and (2) flea performance on an auxiliary host was not negatively correlated with phylogenetic distance of this host from the principal host. In some cases, fleas fed better on hosts that were phylogenetically distant from their principal host. We concluded that variation in flea feeding performance among host species results from interplay between (a) inherent species-specific host defence abilities, (b) inherent species-specific flea abilities to withstand host defences and (c) evolutionary tightness of association between a particular host species and a particular flea species.
我们探讨了寄生在辅助宿主上的跳蚤的取食行为是否以及如何受到跳蚤与其主要宿主之间系统发育距离的影响。我们调查了 2 种跳蚤，即 Parapulex chephrenis 和 Xenopsylla ramesis，在主要宿主（分别为 Acomys cahirinus 和 Meriones crassus）和 8 种辅助宿主上的取食情况。我们预测，跳蚤在（a）主要宿主而非辅助宿主上的取食表现会更好（更多的跳蚤会取食并吸食更大的血量），且在（b）与主要宿主系统发育关系更近的辅助宿主上取食表现会更好。尽管跳蚤在不同宿主上的取食表现存在差异，但我们发现：（1）跳蚤在主要宿主上的取食表现并不总是优于辅助宿主；（2）跳蚤在辅助宿主上的取食表现与该宿主与主要宿主的系统发育距离之间没有负相关关系。在某些情况下，跳蚤在与主要宿主系统发育关系较远的宿主上取食表现更好。我们得出结论，跳蚤在宿主物种间的取食表现的差异是由（a）宿主固有的特定物种防御能力、（b）跳蚤固有的抵御宿主防御的特定物种能力以及（c）特定宿主物种与特定跳蚤物种之间的紧密进化联系之间的相互作用所导致的。
