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- Title
Experimental evidence of negative interspecific interactions among imago fleas: flea and host identities matter.
- Authors
Khokhlova, Irina; Dlugosz, Elizabeth; Krasnov, Boris
- Abstract
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.
- Subjects
FLEAS; FLEAS as carriers of disease; XENOPSYLLA; DISEASE vectors; JIRDS
- Publication
Parasitology Research, 2016, Vol 115, Issue 3, p937
- ISSN
0932-0113
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00436-015-4818-z