Balbuena J A, Raga J A
Department of Animal Biology, University of Valencia, Burjassot, Spain.
Parasitology. 1993 Apr;106 ( Pt 3):327-33. doi: 10.1017/s0031182000075156.
The intestines of 170 long-finned pilot whales, Globicephala melas, caught off the Faroe Islands (N.E. Atlantic) were examined for helminth parasites. Eight species were detected but only 4 occurred in at least 10% of the sample. No core or recurrent group of species were identified and no correlations between abundances of species were significant. Diversity values were far below those reported for other endotherms. Colonization by helminths was random, whales not being readily colonized. These features point to largely unpredictable, isolationist infracommunities, there being little potential for inter-specific interactions. Older hosts tended to harbour more diverse infracommunities, offering more opportunities for such interactions. Two hypotheses, which might also apply to other cetaceans, are proposed to account for the depauperate helminth communities of the pilot whale: (i) some ancestral helminth species failed to adapt their cycles to the marine habitat and (ii) the hosts' isolation from land prohibited new infections with helminths of mammals.
对在法罗群岛（东北大西洋）捕获的170头长肢领航鲸（Globicephala melas）的肠道进行了蠕虫寄生虫检查。检测到8个物种，但只有4个物种在至少10%的样本中出现。未识别出核心或常见的物种组，物种丰度之间也没有显著相关性。多样性值远低于其他恒温动物的报告值。蠕虫的定殖是随机的，鲸鱼不容易被定殖。这些特征表明存在很大程度上不可预测的、孤立的小群落，种间相互作用的可能性很小。年龄较大的宿主往往拥有更多样化的小群落，为这种相互作用提供了更多机会。提出了两个可能也适用于其他鲸类的假说，以解释领航鲸蠕虫群落匮乏的原因：（i）一些原始蠕虫物种未能使其生命周期适应海洋栖息地；（ii）宿主与陆地隔离，阻止了感染哺乳动物的新蠕虫。
