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Host selection and niche differentiation in sucking lice (Insecta: Anoplura) among small mammals in southwestern China

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Abstract

Understanding factors that shape host selection has been a classic issue in ecology, evolutionary biology, and epidemiological investigation. During the survey from 2000 to 2009, a total of 11,216 individuals of small mammals were captured from Yunnan Province in southwestern China. The captured small mammalian hosts belong to five orders, ten families, 35 genera, and 65 species and from their body surface, 38,885 individuals of ectoparasitic sucking lice were collected, which represent five families, seven genera, and 31 species. Based on niche overlap of dominant sucking lice on their primary hosts, we used hierarchical cluster analysis to sort different sucking louse species’ resource utilizations of similar kind into respective categories. Given λ < 5, there are only two groups clustered, however, sucking louse species’ resource utilization was sorted into eight respective categories at λ = 15. The results revealed that most species of sucking lice usually had high host specificity and a certain species of sucking louse usually restricted to one or few small mammalian species as their dominant hosts. Correspondence analysis was used to visualize associations between parasitic sucking lice and their small mammalian hosts, which suggested three different patterns of host resource utilization: species specialists, genera generalists, and multiple selections. For example, Sathrax durus (Johnson) only parasitized on species of Tupaia belangeri (Wagner), Hoplopleura edentula (Fahredholz) predominatly on genus of Eothenomys, and Polyplax reclinata (Nitzsch) on Family of Soricidae. Our results demonstrate that sucking lice have high host specificity and this might be due to coevolution between sucking lice and their hosts.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to some of our colleagues—Mr. Sheng-yong Zhang, Ms. Yan-fen Meng, Mr. Ti-jun Qian, Mr. Wei Li, and Mr. Li-jun Guo, and others—for their contribution and kind help in field investigation, specimen making, identification of sucking lice, and some other related works. We also thank some college students for their contribution and help in the field investigation. Special thanks go to reviewers for their critical review of the manuscript and kind useful suggestions and comments. This study was supported by the Yunnan Provincial Foundation for Key Scientific Projects (grant no. 2007C0005Z2 to XG Guo) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30060078 to XG Guo).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China

    Xiao-Hua Zuo, Xian-Guo Guo, Yin-Zhu Zhan, Dian Wu, Zhi-Hua Yang, Wen-Ge Dong, Li-Qin Huang, Tian-Guang Ren, Yong-Guang Jing, Qiao-Hua Wang, Xiao-Mei Sun & Shang-Jin Lin

  2. School of Engineering, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China

    Dian Wu

  3. Department of Graduates, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China

    Zhi-Hua Yang

  4. Institute of Entomology, Guizhou University, Guiyan, Guizhou, 550025, China

    Wen-Ge Dong

  5. Department of Medicine, Xinyu University, Xinyu, Jiangxi, 338004, China

    Li-Qin Huang

  6. School of Nursing, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China

    Tian-Guang Ren

  7. School of Basic Medicine, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China

    Yong-Guang Jing

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  1. Xiao-Hua Zuo
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  2. Xian-Guo Guo
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Correspondence to Xian-Guo Guo.

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Zuo, XH., Guo, XG., Zhan, YZ. et al. Host selection and niche differentiation in sucking lice (Insecta: Anoplura) among small mammals in southwestern China. Parasitol Res 108, 1243–1251 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-010-2173-7

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