Stanko Michal, Miklisová Dana, Goüy de Bellocq Joëlle, Morand Serge
Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Löfflerova, 04001, Kosice, Slovakia.
Laboratoire de Biologie Animale (UMR 5555 CNRS), Centre de Biologie et d'Ecologie Tropicale et Méditerranéenne, Université de Perpignan, 66860, Perpignan Cedex, France.
Oecologia. 2002 Apr;131(2):289-295. doi: 10.1007/s00442-002-0889-5. Epub 2002 Apr 1.
Patterns of species richness, prevalence and abundance of ectoparasites have rarely been investigated at both the levels of populations and species of hosts. Here, we investigated the effects in changes in small mammal density on species richness, abundance and prevalence of ectoparasitic fleas. The comparative analyses were conducted for different small mammal species and among several populations during a long-term survey. We tested the hypothesis that an increase in host density should be linked with an increase in parasite species richness both among host species and among populations within host species, as predicted by epidemiological models. We also used host species density data from literature. We found that host density has a major influence on the species richness of ectoparasite communities of small mammals among host populations. We found no relationship between data of host density from the literature and parasite species richness. In contrast with epidemiological hypotheses, we found no relationships between abundance, or prevalence, and host density, either among host species or among host populations. Moreover, a decrease in abundance of fleas in relation with an increase in host density was observed for two mammal species (Apodemus agrarius and A. flavicollis). The decrease or the lack of increase in flea abundance in relation with an increase in host density suggests anti-parasitic behavioural activities such as grooming.
外寄生虫的物种丰富度、流行率和丰度模式在宿主的种群和物种层面上很少被研究。在这里，我们研究了小型哺乳动物密度变化对外寄生蚤类的物种丰富度、丰度和流行率的影响。在一项长期调查中，对不同的小型哺乳动物物种以及几个种群进行了比较分析。我们检验了这样一个假设，即正如流行病学模型所预测的那样，宿主密度的增加应该与宿主物种之间以及宿主物种内不同种群之间寄生虫物种丰富度增加相关联。我们还使用了文献中的宿主物种密度数据。我们发现宿主密度对宿主种群中小型哺乳动物外寄生虫群落的物种丰富度有重大影响。我们发现文献中的宿主密度数据与寄生虫物种丰富度之间没有关系。与流行病学假设相反，我们发现在宿主物种之间或宿主种群之间，丰度或流行率与宿主密度之间均无关联。此外，对于两种哺乳动物（黑线姬鼠和黄颈姬鼠），观察到蚤类丰度随着宿主密度增加而下降。蚤类丰度随着宿主密度增加而下降或没有增加，这表明存在诸如梳理毛发等抗寄生虫行为活动。
