Clark L, Mason J Russell
Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, 19104, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 19104, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Oecologia. 1985 Sep;67(2):169-176. doi: 10.1007/BF00384280.
Passerine birds that reuse nest sites face an increased parasite and pathogen load. They also are more likely to use fresh green vegetation during nest construction. The present results demonstrate that at least one passerine, the European Starling: (a) selects a small subset of available plant species for inclusion in nest material; and (b) chooses plants whose volatiles are more likely to inhibit arthropod hatching and bacterial growth relative to a random subset of available vegetation. The results also show that preferred plants possess greater numbers of mono- and sesqueter-penes at higher concentrations relative to a random subset of available plants. These findings strongly suggest that starlings use chemicals in fresh vegetation as fumigants against parasites and pathogens.
重复使用巢穴的雀形目鸟类面临着寄生虫和病原体负荷增加的问题。它们在筑巢时也更有可能使用新鲜的绿色植被。目前的研究结果表明，至少有一种雀形目鸟类——欧洲椋鸟：（a）从可用植物物种中选择一小部分用于筑巢材料；（b）相对于随机选择的可用植被子集，选择其挥发物更有可能抑制节肢动物孵化和细菌生长的植物。结果还表明，相对于随机选择的可用植物子集，偏好的植物含有更高浓度的单萜和倍半萜。这些发现有力地表明，椋鸟利用新鲜植被中的化学物质作为对抗寄生虫和病原体的熏蒸剂。
