Khokhlova Irina S, Dlugosz Elizabeth M, Krasnov Boris R
Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Inst. 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.
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
Parasitol Res. 2016 Mar;115(3):937-47. doi: 10.1007/s00436-015-4818-z. Epub 2015 Nov 11.
We investigated interspecific interactions between two flea species (Parapulex chephrenis and Xenopsylla ramesis) via evaluation of their feeding success (the size of a blood meal and time to death after a single blood meal) when they exploited rodent hosts [Acomys cahirinus (a characteristic host of the former) or Meriones crassus (a characteristic host of the latter)] in single-species or mixed-species groups. We predicted that the negative interactions between the two fleas will result in smaller blood meals and shorter survival time in mixed- versus single-species infestations. We also predicted that the negative effect of mixed-species infestation on feeding performance would be less pronounced when fleas exploited their characteristic host rather than a non-characteristic host. When exploiting a characteristic host, P. chephrenis took larger blood meals in single- than in mixed-species groups, whereas the blood meal size in X. ramesis did not differ between treatments. When exploiting a non-characteristic host, no effect of group composition was found in either flea species. Survival time after a single blood meal was not affected by co-infestation or host species in either flea. Our results suggest context-dependence of the negative effect of co-infestation on feeding performance in fleas with the manifestation of this effect varying in dependence of flea and host species identities.
我们通过评估两种跳蚤（切氏副蚤和印鼠客蚤）在单物种或混合物种组中利用啮齿动物宿主（埃及刺鼠，前者的典型宿主；或肥尾心颅跳鼠，后者的典型宿主）时的取食成功率（血餐大小和单次血餐后的死亡时间），研究了它们之间的种间相互作用。我们预测，两种跳蚤之间的负面相互作用将导致混合物种感染组与单物种感染组相比血餐更小、存活时间更短。我们还预测，当跳蚤利用其典型宿主而非非典型宿主时，混合物种感染对取食性能的负面影响将不那么明显。当利用典型宿主时，切氏副蚤在单物种组中比在混合物种组中摄取的血餐更大，而印鼠客蚤的血餐大小在不同处理之间没有差异。当利用非典型宿主时，在两种跳蚤中均未发现组间组成的影响。单次血餐后的存活时间在两种跳蚤中均不受共感染或宿主物种的影响。我们的结果表明，共感染对跳蚤取食性能的负面影响具有背景依赖性，这种影响的表现因跳蚤和宿主物种的身份而异。
