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Variable effects of host characteristics on species richness of flea infracommunities in rodents from three continents

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Abstract

We studied the effect of host gender and body mass on species richness of flea infracommunities in nine rodent host species from three biomes (temperate zone of central Europe, desert of the Middle East and the tropics of East Africa). Using season- and species-specific generalized linear mixed models and controlling for year-to-year variation, spatial clustering of rodent sampling and over-dispersion of the data, we found inconsistent associations between host characteristics and flea species richness. We found strong support for male-biased flea parasitism, especially during the reproductive period (higher species richness in male hosts than in females) in all considered European rodents (Apodemus agrarius, Myodes glareolus and Microtus arvalis) and in one rodent species from the Middle East (Dipodillus dasyurus). In contrast, two of three African rodent species (Lophuromys kilonzoi and Praomys delectorum) demonstrated a trend of female-biased flea species richness. Positive associations between body mass and the number of flea species were detected mainly in males (five of nine species: A. agrarius, M. glareolus, M. arvalis, D. dasyurus and Mastomys natalensis) and not in females (except for M. natalensis). The results of this study support earlier reports that gender-biased, in general, and male-biased, in particular, infestation by ectoparasites is not a universal rule. This suggests that mechanisms of parasite acquisition by an individual host are species-specific and have evolved independently in different rodent host-flea systems.

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Acknowledgments

Allan Degen read the earlier version of the manuscript and made helpful comments, and Kiri Brenner edited the English. Studies in Israel were partly supported by Israel Science Foundation (grant 26/12 to ISK and BRK). Studies in Slovakia were conducted under the licenses of the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic No. 297/108/06-3.1 and No. 6743/2008-2.1 and partly supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (grant APVV 0267-10 to MS). Studies in Tanzania were supported by the Belgian Fund for the Research in Industry and Agro-alimentary, the Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders for scientific research, the University of Antwerp and the Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania). This is publication no. 834 of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Zoology and Forest Conservation incl. Wildlife Biology and Game Management, Büsgen-Institute, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Christian Kiffner

  2. Center for Wildlife Management Studies, The School for Field Studies, Karatu, Tanzania

    Christian Kiffner

  3. Institute of Parasitology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice, Slovakia

    Michal Stanko

  4. CIRAD—AGIRs, Montpellier, France

    Serge Morand

  5. CNRS—Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Montpellier, France

    Serge Morand

  6. Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel

    Irina S. Khokhlova, Georgy I. Shenbrot & Boris R. Krasnov

  7. Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel

    Irina S. Khokhlova, Georgy I. Shenbrot, Hadas Hawlena & Boris R. Krasnov

  8. Evolutionary Ecology Group, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Anne Laudisoit & Herwig Leirs

  9. School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Anne Laudisoit

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  1. Christian Kiffner
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Kiffner, C., Stanko, M., Morand, S. et al. Variable effects of host characteristics on species richness of flea infracommunities in rodents from three continents. Parasitol Res 113, 2777–2788 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-3937-2

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